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BOUGHT WITH MONEY
RECEIVED FROM THE
SALE OF DUPLICATES
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TUDOR IDEALS
BY
LEWIS EINSTEIN
AUnOK or " THE ITAUAII UHAIUAIICB Dl UmUJm," ITC.
LONDON
G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.
1921
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.1^+3. 37-2-
BARCOUKT, BKACE AND COUPAHT, 1
PUNTED IN rSE U. S. A.
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PREFACE
An early book by the writer on the Italian Renaissance
in England had been intended as a partial introduction
to a future history of English Sixteenth Century Ideals.
But a diplomatic career spent mainly in distant parts,
had interfered with its pursuit, and the shadow of a great
war has been little conducive to the concentration re-
quired for such a study. Like those architects who with
vast plans in mind rear only a small wing of their edifice,
the writer has been obliged to restrict his scope and his
material till no one is more conscious than he of its frag-
mentary and imperfect nature.
In attempting to reduce into words the multiple activ-
ities of a nation, it is no easy task to weigh their rel-
ative importance or to feel convinced that one's individ-
ual sense of perspective is either the correct or the only
one. Historical perceptions are largely personal. One
searches fixed pomts from which to measure distances.
But such measurements at best are incomplete, and often
other deductions might be drawn from the same range
of facts. Especially, when the search is for ideals rather
than for a chronological sequence, and the goal is the
inner spirit of a nation at a rich moment of its evolu-
tion, the method utilized, which aims to find the ex-
pression of ideas in letters, and in acts, must be haphazard
and the result elusive.
It is easy to discolour history by over-blackening its
shadows. It is as easy to bring out itsdrabness by re-
ducing all to one dull plane. This study is only an incom-
plete essay which seeks to discover if under the vast
maze of facts, can be found the rational beginnings of
a structure of life in Sixteenth Century England.
lyGOOgIC
If, as a fragmentary work it is now published, it is
because of the hope that an interest in ideals, and not
in events, in currents of opinion, and not in annals, may,
perhaps, stimulate a closer inquiry into a period embrac-
ing the formative elements in the life of all English-
speaking nations.
It has still another aim to justify the apolt^y for its
appearance. Dimly conscious as we are of the significance
of currents which are now carrying us forward, it is im-
possible not to realize that the great war has marked the
end of an epoch, and that we stand to-day at the threshold
of a new era toward which we are both groping and drift-
ing. Still unshaped in its revelation, we can discern
enough to feel the decay of an old world structure crum-
bling on its foundations and dragging down in its ruins
many of the adornments and amenities of life. We are
entering into a new age still in its rough-hewn aspect,
ushered in amid violence and disorder as was the period
we are leaving behind.
The Renaissance also, came only after the disintegration
of medieval society had left feudalism, no longer possessed
of inherent vitality and unable to prevent an anarchy
out of which the new world was bom. In this sense our
era presents a curious resemblance to the age which
forms the subject of this study. Its setting is different,
its direction is opposite, but in many respects it is not
unlike. We, too, are on the eve of great events. If we
are wise in the measure of our force we will study our
traditions the better to guide future hopes.
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CONTENTS
Pace
Preface »
INTRODUCTION
The Spirit of the Sixteenth Centuiy. Importance of the Prince. ,
Tendencies of the Age. . . , xi J
PART I. THE CROWN
- I. The Sanction of Powbi j I
Ttaniformalion of royalty. Illegitimacy in succestion. Title
rests on power. Renaissance theory of the prince.
- II. The Thiorv of Majesty ii
New power of the Crown. The prince above the law. Servility
before the king. Divine Right.
III. The Royal AuTHORnr lo
The Crown represents order. The evolution of the State. The
prince's personality. Royal supremacy.
IV. The Pmhce and His Subjects 16
Facility of approach. Ceremonial occasions and pageantry. The
feding of power. Elizabeth's love of popularity.
- V. The Coubt 37
Importance of the Court in the State. The scramble for riches.
The art of pleasing. Miseries of court life.
VI. The Training fon AuTHORmr 47
The Tudor education. Tlie purpose of culture. Incongruous
choice of officials. Preparation for State service.
VII. Office and CowiuPnOK 56
Disorder in GovernmenL The prince's favour. Explanation of
corruption. Official honesty.
VIII. PoimcAL Morality 63 I
Crime in the 15th Century. Assassination and morals. Eliza- I
beth's hypocrisy.
- IX. The Idea of the State 76
Slight importance of theory in England. Rational basis of state-
craft. Edward the Sixth's ideas. Classical origin of political
philosophy.
X. Public Ofinion 84 1
Apathy of opinion. Henry VIII's efforts to conciliate opinion. '
Early use of the preai. Growing interest in public question*,
vii
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viii CONTENTS '
Pacb
XI. Thb Spirit or Revolt «
Oppouiion to the Crown. Motive* for Tcbctlioo. The Co»p
Xelat. Apology tor Tvvdutitm.
PART II. THE INDIVIDUAL
I, The Nbw Ihoividuaush 103
Cdlipie of the medieval ttructure. The Tudor Monarchy and
the individjal. Exceu of individualiim.
II. Tbe Growth op PERSONALiry 109 ,
Grcumtiaocei and life. Liberation of the individual.
III. The Vicimitudes or Fortuhb iiS
The adventurer. The rise and fall of men. The reaction to
IV. Violence in Private Lipb lai
Survivals of lawleisneat. Crime in the drama.
V. The EvoLimoH of Woman 114
Contemporary opinion misleading. Upper classes respond to the
I new learning. The evoli
\/ Disintegration of the old order. Class diitinctions and hatri
The compromise of English life. y
VII. TRAOmoNAL Survivals 140
Political expediency of ttadliton. Gradual transformation of life. ''^ —
Deliberate revenioni to the Middle Agei,
VIII. The Social Fabric 150
Influence of the Ctoi
of society. The n(
IX. The Theory of Aristocracy 157
Divergence between theory and practice. Ethical considerations.
Influence of antiquity. Ideal of nobility.
X. The Preparation for Life i6j
Cultivated persiHiality in tne ijth Century. Physical training.
Gilbert's Academy.
XI. The Art op War 168
Military structure of Medieval Society. Use of mercenaries.
Standards of pn^eisional honor. Influence of war in English
PART III. IDEALS OF LIFE AND THOUGHT
I I. Ideals in English Life
The reflection of life on ideals. Growth of new ideals.
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CONTENTS ix
Pagb
/ II. DiMociATic TeminciM iBi
I The ducovery of the lower cliucs. Religioui foundation for
democtatic idea*. Puritan* and Democracy.
I in. pATuonm A« AM Idbal 187
/ The Medieval ideal of patriodtm. Growth of nation aliam in the
Renaissance. English Calholica and divided allegiance. Exal-
tation of the National Spirit.
IV. Religion in tme Statb 197
Medieval inheritance in religion. Spirit of martyrdom. Atti-
tude of the Catholics. Political aspects of religion.
V. Tolerance anp Persicutiok an
Eariy tolerance. Popularity of petsecution. Eliiabeth'i views
on conformity.
VI. PuRrTAMISM. MO
puritan beginnings. Puritaniim and Democracy.
VII. Free Thought. mj
Doubt in the Middle Ages. Queen Elizabeth's French marriage
and religion. Diffusion of free thought.
VIII. Pacifism and War 230
Relation of the age to ideals. Savagery of warfare. English
1 desire for humanity.
I IX, Tbe Feeling or CoNFAsaioN 234
I Benevolent iasritutions. Edward Vr« charitable interests.
I X. MoRALrrr 140
Giutch moral). Morality at court.
XI. The Favilt 144
Love and the growth of personal freedom. Free choice in
Tctpect to marriage.
PART IV. THE ENRICHMENT OF LIFE
I. The Modern Spimt iSS
1 Consciousness of the age. Pride in achievement. Intellectual
1 curiosity.
/ II. The Idea of Fami 159
-' Moderate interen in glory. Literary aspects of immortality.
Monuments to the dead.
III. Death x6a
Qauical influence. Courage on the scaffold.
\ IV. Thb Feeuhg fok Natuke i6j
Nature and the inner life. External observation.
V. The Pleaiures of the Country 167
Enjoyment of the country. Social importance of the land.
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X CONTENTS
< Pacb
VI. Thb Desire for Beauty 171
Portraiture. Inability to appreciate Italian art. The English
zsthetic sense.
VII. Philosophical Ideas in Life 177
Classical influences. Small originality of renaissance philosophy.
superstition.
VIII. England and the Sea 186
The discovery of America due to the Renaissance. British
backwardness in navigation. Consciousness of England's
destiny as a seapowet. Popular interest in maritime entet^
IX. Nationalism J99
Hatred of foreign influence. Nationalism in Ireland. Scottish
literary nationalism. The nells of English.
X. Internationalism 310
Scholarly aspects of internationalism. Imperialism. French
influence in England.
XI. Classicism and the Universities 316
The Revclarion of the Renaissance. Growth of English human-
ism. Nationalism and the respect for antiquity.
XII. The Diffuszon of Education jjj
Extension of popular knowledge. The cultivation of the illiterate.
XIII. The Discovery OF Letters 331
/ Renaissance expression in literature. Letters and public opinion.
/ National quality of literature.
' XIV. The Cultivation or Life 336
Cultivated public men. The well-rounded personality.
Notes 341
Index 359
A^
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INTRODUCTION
No age is ever stationary, and to label an era like the
Sixteenth Century an epoch of transition, is to get no
closer to the truth. It is more correct to say that the
current of change flows swifter at certain periods than at j
others. Bacon wisely described time as the greatest of
innovators yet failed to notice the varying nature of its
rhythm.
Broadly speaking, the Sixteenth Century and the Tudor
Dynasty coincided with a period of rapid change.
Both began amid the decay of ancient forces and both
ended amid the advent of new elements around which
were to be built the foundations of modern England. Dur-
ing the interval something within men had changed.
It is not easy to lay one's finger on what this was,
for the spirit of an age hovers elusive like the fairies in
"Midsummer Night's Dream." The beginning of the
century had seen the country recovering from internal
dissension, still imbued with the relics of a decaying me-
dievalism, and much inferior to other states of Western
Europe in resources and in civilization. At its end Eng-
land ranked second to none, with an altered perspective
gazing beyond the seas, and a fresh dignity and prestige.
The seeds of British greatness had been sown between
these times.
What occurred to bring about this change? Was it
due to the wisdom of sovereigns and statesmen, or to
great currents like the Reformation, with its middle course
steered between Rome and Geneva? Is it to be found in
the daring of English mariners? Were there deeper causes,
or did the accidents of personality and the trend of events
weightier than men, act and react upon each other to
bring about such results?
lyGOOgIC
xi! INTRODUCTION
Facts are warrens in which historians burrow not always
successfully. Whoever is dissatisfied with the mere chron-
icle of events must grope, often haphazardly, before he can
probe Into the spirit of an age. Inward processes which
sway decisions or make great changes are ill accounted
for, while evolution often works through silent and devious
channels. Though outward circumstances and corre-
sponding reactions are visible, there is always the unseen
to reckon with.
[ English evolution under the Tudors found its lawful
' expression through the prince, for events gravitated more
: than ever before or since, round his person. Directly or
indirectly occurrences were few which lacked such sug-
gestion. At no other time has the British nation swayed
I more readily in response to its rulers. Never again have
I conditions arisen where these could assert themselves so
! masterfully.
I Royalty underwent its own evolution in the Sixteenth
j Century. In the beginning, more than the symbol of
the state, it was the state. The court drew to itself the
[best energies of the nation. It was the channel for its
'ability and the outlet for Its taste. The country, so to
{speak, discovered Itself through the prince. The indi-
,vidual who rose by his own merits and not by interpret-
ing group consciousness, was obliged to conform to
this general structure and had to shape his own ambi-
tion by favouring that of his ruler. But the strength of
the system was also its weakness. Where authority was
Individual the disappearance of the person weakened the
state. Henry VIII could bequeath the crown to his son,
he could not transmit to him the vigour of his own char-
acter.
In spite of the prince's enhanced power the enormous
significance of the age lay in marking the birth of the
individual as a personality and not merely as the tool of an
organization, religious or civil. The real meaning of
the Renaissance was in the new elements then brought
lyGOOgIC
INTRODUCTION xiil
into life, externally and internally, by adoption and by
evolution. Something fresh had altered existence. The
discovery of the world offered a goal to adventurers of
the body. The discovery of antiquity to adventurers of
the mind. The unity of the state provided a conscious
background of strength after the Civil Wars. Later the I
Protestant cause and the Spanish peril elated patriotism i
and the sense of nationality, making crown and people .
feel that together they had braved danger and tt^ether
had accomplished great deeds.
The Renaissance in England became apparent in no
gradual orderly progression. Its first appearance was
confined to court and university, hardly penetrating be-
yond their fringe. Amid the struggles of the Reformation
its growth remained inconspicuous and stunted. If strong
rule preserved the land from civil war, the social upheaval
with its double tale of fresh wealth and fresh misery, long
kept down the finer assertions of the spirit.
The English practical mind which understood facts
rather than ideas, embraced neither Renaissance nor Ref-
ormation, wholeheartedly. Neither attained the headway
on British soil which the one had achieved in Italy, the
other in Germany. Yet familiarity with both and the
stimulus of new forces, brought out the nation's richer per-
sonality. In the departure from conservatism and inertia, \
always the strongest element in tradition, a new national- :
ism, cosmopolitanism, and Puritanism, acted and reacted
on each other. The cosmopolitanism which influenced
the feeling of nationality, was that of universal culture,
and the spark between the two produced the explosion of
Elizabethan genius.
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1
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PART I
THE CROWN
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m
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PART I
THE CROWN
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I. THE SANCTION OF POWER
The Wars of the Roses left conditions in England plas-
tic enough to receive the impress of any domination (-
irrespective of its origin. Years of violence predispose
men to accept accomplished facts by diminishing the
prestige of legal claims which can no longer be enforced.
Chaos favors the rise of strong personality. The horror
of anarchy makes welcome the sole ability to preserve
order; hence the royal power shaped itself to meet actual
conditions. Kingship, to survive the storms it encoun- '
tered, became the most practical of institutions, resting,
its title primarily on the ability to seize and maintain
authority.
Afterward, yearsof serenity were to evolve other ideas
which relied on an acquired prestige and sought sanc-
tions still undreamed of. In the latter part of the 15th
Century such glamour was almost unknown, and the road
to royalty became the first step along which the individ-
ual asserted his personality. He was able to do this
because the rigid medieval structure had broken down
and amid its ruins men instinctively were groping
toward a new order. The lifeless feudal fabric was pre- ]
pared to recdve the impress of a fresher vitality.
Before the Stuarts gave rigidity to the English
state, a looser conception had prevailed with regard to
the foundations of power. This allowed the proscribed
grandson of a Welsh squire without legal sanction to sei2e
the crown of England, and made it possible for his son
to rtuse the royal prerogative to a pinnacle never since
equalled.
The first Tudor, so little of an adventurer in character,
until he reached the throne had been rendered one by
lyGOOgIC
4 TUDOR IDEALS
circumstance. Richard Ill's proclamation against Henry
Tudor, signalled the huinbleness of his early origin and
the double illegitimacy of his claim. The nation was left
undisturbed by the knowledge that his grandfather had
been butler to a bishop, and all the royal blood in his veins
flowed from illicit connections. In England, as in Italy,
, the long continued disorder made the test of royalty he
in the individual's ability to seize power. Never did
monarchical ideas show less rigidity than at the close of
> the Middle Ages.
^ At Bosworth Field Henry VII, as Bacon aptly puts ^
it, was "in a kind of miUtary election of recognition
saluted King," discerning in this a Roman imperial re-
^ minder unnoticed by the main actors. The dawn of a new
era which was to elevate the crown to heights unknown,
coincided with that of a dynasty whose founder assumed
the regal power on the battlefield and who like Napoleon
picked up the sceptre in the dust. Henry VII 's author-
I ity was won by the sword. When after his victory he en-
tered London, he did so, again in Bacon's words, "as
one that having been sometimes an enemy to the whole
state and a proscribed person, chose rather to keep state
and strike a reverence into the people than to fawn upon
them." His first act was to offer his standards at St.
Paul's, not meaning his subjects to forget that he came in
by battle. He laid no stress on doubtful hereditary rights '
though bundling these along with other claims. His mar-
riage to Elizabeth of York would have allowed him to
assert more legal titles, but he preferred to avoid even
the appearance of owing the crown to his wife. Only
after confirmation by ParUament and his coronation,
would he consent to marry the heiress of the Yorkist
cause.
The order he achieved made men soon forget the dis-
order of his origin, for his enemies were ready to employ
worse expedients. No greater travesty of royalty can be
found than Edward IV's sister Duchess Margaret of Bur-
lyGOOgIC
THE SANCTION OF POWER 5
gundy, recognizing as her nephew and rightful claim-
ant to the English throne Perkin Warbeck, whom she
must have known to be an imposter. Her hatred for one
usurper, made her under guise of legitimacy, give
sanction and support to another far greater.
The nation had traversed too violent a crisis to care. "
Public opinion was still unformed, and the principles of
order in the state insufficiently grounded for any claim to
seem anomalous when accompanied by force. Judged by
these principles no one had a sounder right to reign than
the first Tudor who laid the foundations of modern Eng-
land. He realized the precarious nature of his authority
too vividly not to seek to make easier his heir's succes-
sion. To confirm bis dynasty, still resting on an insecure
basis, Henry VII in accordance with the maxims of per-
sonal rule, sought matrimonial alliance with Spain. Fer-
dinand of Aragon, careless of Tudor origin, was mindful
of Tudor stability, and exacted as condition the death
of the innocent Warwick whose blood sealed Katherine's
marriage to Prince Henry. Neither by foreign princes
nor by his own people was any higher sanction sought than
the King's ability to maintain his dynasty on the riirone.
An Italian who travelled in England In 1500, remarked
that if the succession was at all in dispute, the question
was settled by recourse to arms.*^ There were many who
believed, in spite of the stability of Henry VII's rule,
that at his death the Duke of Buckingham or Edmond
de la Pole might seek the throne.
the possibiUty of claimants appearing with as good
a right as the Tudors always existed, and Henry VIII's
cruel persecution of any possible pretenders, at the rime
when he seemed most firmly seated, came from this ap-
prehension, and showed that in his own mind, at least,
he never felt entirely secure.
Beyond this loomed another peril. Thomas Cromwell
when in Parliament had opposed the war with France on
* All refercncei will be found at the end of the book.
lyGOOgIC
6 TUDOR IDEALS
the ground of danger to the royal person. If the King
were killed, civil war would be likely to ensue. Disorder
I through doubt of succession remained a spectre for all
the Tudors, and apologists have found herein the defence
for Henry VIII's matrimonial experiences. The nation,
haunted by its memories of civil war, gave the most indul-
gent support to the extravagant assertions of royal
authority. The City of London extended its hearty wel-
come to the royal mistress, and Nicholas Udal, head-
master of Eton, composed verses for Anne Boleyn, where
with more truth than his servile mind could foresee, he
looked forward to her issue to guard England and the
faith from danger.*
The nation's fears centred on anarchy brought about
by uncertainty in the transmission of the crown, acqui-
esced in the preservation of order by the most disorderly
means. When other hopes to secure a regular inheritance
failed, Parliament gave the King power to bequeath
the crown by will and promised allegiance to his ill^ti-
mate succession. Henry had made all his plans to declare
heir his natural son the Duke of Richmond, and of
marrying him to his half-sister Mary.
The looseness of such ideas was not peculiar to Eng-
land but rather to an age of unsetded sanctions whose
social structure was itself in rapid transformation. Where
power was the goal other considerations became of slight
consequence. In Scotland the future Earl of Murray,
borrowing the argument from Knox that kingly authority
emanated from virtue and not from birth, in order to
press his own claim tried to induce Mary Stuart to ap-
point as her successor one of the royal blood irrespec-
tive of his legitimacy.* At a time when everything
conspired to magnify the power of the crown its ori^n
had become a matter almost of indifference.
If legal right could be altered to fit circumstance, the
reverse also held true. Henry VIII felt no hesitation in
having his two daughters declared illegitimate by one
lyGOOgIC
THE SANCTION OF POWER 7
Parliament, while a later one without reinstating the two
princesses to their lawful birth, yet placed both in the or-
der of royal succession. The legal position of the sisters
so curiously different passed through the same vicissitudes.
Edward VI in his "Device for the Succession," did not even
mention them, though In the final settlement, their title
after being recited was declared inadequate, on the triple
ground of illegitimacy, half blood to the king, and likeli-
hood of marrying a stranger born out of the realm.*
But royal authority perished with its personal existence
and Edward VI could bind his succession as little as his
father had been able to do.
Though almost any excess was tolerated on the part of
the sovereign during his life, natural laws reasserted them-
selves on his decease. Popular approval which had al-
ways to be sought between two reigns then favoured the
rightful claimant, as Northumberland realized when he
tried to replace a Tudor by a Dudley dynasty. Yet a
princess less strong-willed than Mary might not have
successfully asserted her rights; while one possessed
of less duplicity than Elizabeth, could In the early un-
stable years of her reign, have aroused an opposition
which might have deprived her of life and crown. Both, •
aided by circumstance and natural right, needed ability
to grasp the royal sceptre.
In the early years of her reign Elizabeth's sanction ,
rested on insecure ground. As the majority of the na-
tion was srill catholic, the Issue of Anne Boleyn could
not be lawful to most Englishmen. Behind the friendly
overtures from Philip and the Pope, on her accession,
lay the covert threat that she could reign only with
their support. With rare deceit she kept Rome and
Spain in expectant suspense until she felt herself on firm
ground. Jesuits might dispute her title, and Cardinal
Allen many years later still taunted her with her birth,'
but their aspersions only added to her popularity.
She herself wlien Queen, perhaps to avoid raking up
lyGOOgIC
8 TUDOR IDEALS
old controversies, took no steps to clear her mother's
memory, though she had the order of royal succes-
sion changed from "lawful" to "natural" issue on the
ground of the former being insulting to her. Leicester's
enemies imputed this to his intrigues, in order to assert
in case of the Queen's death that one of his illegitimate
children was hers.'
Characteristic of a period of strong personal rule,
\y^ was the idea running through the age that the primary
sanction of power came less from blood or hereditary
right, than from its exercise. Royalty had to justify
itself, and its source was secondary before the accom-
plished fact. Although Elizabeth might seem to have
given new stability to the crown, it could still be main-
tained that "the sword hath always been better than
half the title to get, establish or maintain a kingdom."'
The Jesuit Robert Parsons, author of "A Conference
about the Next Succession," written toward the end of
the Virgin Queen's reign, declared — "whatsoever a prince's
title be, if once he be settled in the Crown and admitted
by the Commonwealth, every man is bound to settle
his conscience to obey the same in all that lawfully he
may command and this without examination of his
title." Ordinary rules could not be applied to princes'
y titles. Ties of blood though of great Importance in them-
selves, did not bind the Commonwealth, if weightier
reasons existed. The only essentials to reign were fitness
and the ability to fulfil duty."
I' Such was the Renaissance theory of the prince who
rested the sanction of his power, not on divine law or
birth, though ready to invoke both, but on his own
; strength and popular approval, expressed in England by
! Pariiament. Nor can better proof be given of the prince's
personal opinion of the sacredness of royalty than Henry
A the Eighth's execution of two queens.
X I This spirit is met with in the Elizabethan Drama.
! Marlowe's Tamburlajne by sheer force of will plans to
t: Google
THE SANCTION OF POWER 9
master the world. He makes no secret of his own hum-
ble origin.
"I am a lord for so my deeds shall prove
And yet a shepherd by my parentage."
I Tamb. I, II, 34.
When he bids his younger son be brave he tells him
"If thou exceed thy elder brothers' worth
And shine in complete virtue more than they
Thou shall be king before them."
II Tamb. I, III, 49.
In this was expressed the political idea of the age,
whether represented by Henry VII or by Tamburlaine.
Hereditary right was secondary to forceful ability. The j
best title to a throne lay in the strength to seize it and ;
to wield the royal power. Some have read in Marlowe
the influence of Machievelli's ideas. The Florentine
was highly appreciated in England, but it is superfluous
n> call on his influence to explain such incentives. Rea-
sons which then stirred the hearts of men needed no phi-
losophy for their genesis.
Frank admiration for success irrespective of means
to att^n it is characteristic of every period in rapid
transition, where former standards unable to meet the
strain imposed upon them bend and break. Shake-
speare expressed this in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona."
When Valentine banished from Milan turns outlaw and
captures the Duke who had exiled him, the latter, by
no means incensed, admires his daring. "I do applaud
thy spirit, Valentine, and think thee worthy of an Em-
press' love."
The immense prestige acquired by the Crown in the
Sixteenth Century, seems at first but little compatible
with this view. The body of doctrine and of ceremonft
then evolved to enhance the glamour of kingship, byt
attributing to it a divine authority, appears in contra/
lyGOOgIC
lo TUDOR IDEALS
(diction with the realism underlying the conception of the
royal power. In reality it confirms this idea. The dignity
of the crown arose not from its origin but from its exer-
cise. It rested not on an invisible lineage, but on a visi-
ble authority. The two views ran parallel courses, and
, no conflict between them could arise. The Tudors, ac-
cepting the homage of divine right, trusted only in the
I reality of their power.
I The ille^timacy attending Tudor origins, the perplex-
i ities of Tudor marriages, and the difficulties of Tudor
] successions, were among the causes which later contrib-
. uted to increasing the power of the people. A dynasty
r| with equal authority but with clearer title and heirs,
^ {might have concerned itself less with seeking parliamen-
■tary approval. Henry VII demanded the confirmation
of his tide from Parliament. Henry VIII, notorious
tyrant though he was, often showed it almost deferential
respect. A monarch so imperious as Elizabeth, yielded
to it on occasion with the good grace of her political
sagacity. Although popular power was unripened, the
lesson was not lost. In spite of disturbances and oc-
casional revolts, no nation has ever proved more sub-
missive nor more loyal than was England to the Tudors.
\ They were obeyed willingly because they represented the
\ strong rule that was wanted and not because of their
I lineage or blood right to mount the throne.
lyGOOgIC
II. THE THEORY OF MAJESTY
In Fifteenth Century England, when the power of the
crown sank to its lowest ebb, the spectacle of royal
dignity was little enhanced by the succession of English
monarchs rebelled against, dethroned and murdered.
Where the king commanded so little respect, those of
his blood were often left devoid of any remnant of pres-
tige. Philip de Comines recalled members of the House
of Lancaster poorer than beggars in the street and had
seen the Duke of Exeter, brother-in-law of Edward IV,
trailing barefooted and nameless in the train of the Duke
of Burgundy.'
Before the Renaissance, a king even when he possessed V/
strong personality, was hardly more than an exalted
noble whose authority remained strictly limited by
feudal and church rights. A family of obscure origin
in two generations, raised the crown as an institu- /
don to a height hitherto unknown. Circumstance and v
theory alike helped to persuade the Tudor prince of his
omnipotence. The conception of Roman law entering
with the new ideas and welcomed by those in authority,
placed all power in the prince's hands and from him
derived all power. The classical influence with its
point of \^ew so advantageous to the crown, assured
Renaissance learning a welcome at court. With these
views the conceprion of centralized monarchy grew to
novel dimen^ons and the person and power of the prince
expanded with their new importance. .
What brought about this sudden elevation in the royal | "
power? The answer is not to be found either in Roman
law whose introduction had been unsuccessfully at-
tempted in the Fifteenth Century, or in the Tudor abil-
lyGOOglC
12 TUDOR IDEALS
ity to create such an ideal of kingship. The cause lay
i rather in the combination of two separate circumstances
neither sufficient in itself but whose coincidence ef-
fected the result. The first was in the immense expan-
I sion of life which came as the result of a quickened vi-
ItaHty before new opportunity, and raised England from
jan isolated provincial state to the dignity of a great
I power. The second arose from the fact that in this
[new state in process of rapid evolution, with novel
'horizons lying before the individual, the various ave-
I nues of energy were still in their rudimentary banning.
The church whose power was soon to be humbled,
'was almost the only institution presenting a tradition
of venerable continuity. All other public services or
paths of distinction, parliament, army, navy, diplo-
macy, all, save perhaps the bench with its varying
vicissitudes, were in the making during the Sixteenth
Century, and for the most part without the ripdity or
prestige of an established organization. Men rushed,
so to speak, into a void and carved out careers which
for better or worse had not yet been moulded by the
impress of fixed tradition. Personality grew as individ-
uals moved into wider orbits. During the interval, be-
fore conditions had simmered down to shape themselves
into the novel structure, the idea of kingship reaped
advantage from such chaos and in the banning became
its main beneficiary.
In an unsettled and rapidly shifting age an accepted
institution which represents force, law, and order, always
offers a rallying point. The Tudors, moreover, seized
'the crown while England was emerging from the Mid-
, die Ages, and were able to establish themselves without
being obliged to encounter the pressure of movements
I still unborn which were later to act as limitations
|to the royal power. The opposition they met with
Iwas easily overridden, and for one brief period in English
fhistory, the prince felt himself virtually without re-
lyGOOglC
THE THEORY OF MAJESTY 13
stric6on able to follow the inclinations of his personal)
will. While years had still to elapse before the country
was able to disentangle the chaos caused by its own
over rapid expansion, no such restriction weighed on
the prince whose instruments of authority already
created, gave him a clear start. During that interval,
thecrown becamethecentreof all power. Without having/
to snatch this from others it merely stepped into the open/
gap and unquestioned and unchallenged, assumed bound-|
less rights and prert^atives. The king arrived, so to
speak, first on the field, and those who found him there
not only accepted his tide without demur but helped
to enhance his authority.
Amid such circumstances the Tudor theory of majesty
was bom. Learned men, and men of law subservient
as always to established authority, defended the prac-
tice, exalted the power of the prince, and placed him on
a pinnacle which, save in oriental lands, had never been
attained since the days of imperial Rome. The Tudors
only repeated what the Ceesars had done and England,
like Rome, remained well-nigh indifferent to the sanction
of the title save as it rested on fact. It magnified the j
power of the prince and placed him above the law. "From
the prince as from a perpetual wellspring, comcth among
the people the flood of all that is good or evil,"* wrote
Sir Thomas More, the most independent mind of his
age, and the one furthest removed from the spirit of
flattery.
Such ideas had hardly been noticeable in the founder .
of the dynasty. Henry VII, modern in his political real-
ism, remained curiously medieval in form, and purposely [
preferred his outward garb to be still enmeshed in the ,
fabric of the past. Perhaps to conceal the force of his 1
innovations and make his changes as imperceptible as'
possible, the first Tudor sought to attach himself to the;
past rather than to appear as a reformer. Henry VIII -
mounting the throne felt none of his father's hesitations.
lyGOOgIC
14 TUDOR IDEALS
In addition to the assurance which youth, popularity,
and inherited power gave him, he was also the benefi-
ciary of circumstance, able to take advantage of the new
position of England restored by his father, and the new
power of kingship raised high by the spirit of the age.
Everything conspired to enhance his prestige and au-
thority. A fresh pomp and ceremonial was devised to
fit new circumstances, and the outward forms of dig-
nity altered to meet these novel conditions. The early
designation of the king as "Your Grace" was replaced
by the more exalted title of "Your Majesty" to which
"Sacred" was soon to be added.
Despite the boast that unlike continentals. English-
men were oot slaves, a new spirit of servility previously
unknown grew up around the king. The royal dignity
had risen so suddenly to so unparalleled a height, that
all sense of proportion was lost sight of by courtiers
eager to prove their submissive obedience. At a time when
other standards which might have served as correctives
against such pliability had been crushed into decay,
veneration for the crown alone survived and, from
highest to lowest, all flattered the king. In the words
of a French Ambassador he became a "statue for idola-
try,"' while adulation was so universal as hardly to ex-
cite comment.
The extravagance characteristic of the age showed
its worst side in the degradation of character this led to.
The king himself in the pride of his position, lost all
feeling for the ordinary decencies of life, and celebrated
the news of Katherine of Aragon's death by attending a
court dance. His conduct after the execution of Anne
Boleyh was no less revolring. He felt himself above the
jlaw, unable to do wrong. His kingdom was his property,
(entire and absolute. He provided for his own death by
conferring the goverment of England on the executors
of his wiliand making a trust of the realm.
Foreigners marvelled at the servile deference of the
lyGOOgIC
THE THEORY OF MAJtSTY ij
church dignitaries in his presence.^ The royal princesses
knelt before their father in accordance with an etiquette
which prescribed that no one must speak to the Pnnce
" but in adoration and kneeling. "^ Later, Queen Elizabeth
expected all at court to fall on their knees before her."
Beyond the throne a halo fell on those near the royal
person. Typical of this are the circumstances attending
the arrest of Wolsey. The Cardinal had refused to sub-
mit himself to the Earl of Northumberland who came for
such purpose, but did so at once to Master Walsh on
the ground, though the latter was without warrant,
that he belonged to the king's privy chamber, remarking
that "the worst person there is a sufHctent warrant to
arrest the greatest peer of this realm by the king's only
commandment without any commission. " ^ In this spirit
Marlowe makes Edward the Second rebuke the unruly
nobles who had taunted Gaveston.
"Were he a peasant, being my minion
rU make the proudest of you stoop to him."
Edw. n, I, IV. 30.
It was likely enough the idea of the omnipotence of
royalty, far more than any medieval tradition of laxity in
such matters, that allowed a monarch so imperious as
Henry VIII to marry outside the royal circle. While the
French and English Courts had been shocked by his sister
wedding a man "low-born" like the Duke of Suffolk and
the king took from her the plate and jewels given her on
her first alHance Henry VIII 's practice in marrying
women with no personal prestige, was that of Byzantine
Emperors and oriental despots, too exalted for the lineage
of a consort not to be a matter of indifFerence. The prince |
was higher than the law and as such could do what he '
wiUed." "
More cautious than her father yet quite as impe-
riously minded Elizabeth restrained her own affections
lyGOOgIC
i6 TUDOR IDEALS
though she told Castelnau that if Ldcester had been of
royal birth she would have married him.*
Where different circumstances brought about the
exaltation of the Throne it was not surprising, that an age
which blended politics with religion should have sought
in divine right the highest sanction for royalty. The
origin of this idea was probably an adaptation from
antiquity. A monarch with such exalted convictions of
^y his prerogative as Henry VIII naturally seized on a
theory congenial to his own inclinations. Though able
on occasion to parade sound constitutional doctrine, his
acts refer to the "Kingly power given him by God.""
Earlier opinions inherited from scholastic philosophy
of kingship resting on popular approval were forgotten.
The forceful Tudor absolutism was no congenial soil for
such ideas. The dogma of the subjects' obedience by
Godly injunction was well implanted, and the belief in the
divine nature of royal authority passed into the stock
ideas of the age. Elizabeth began the manifesto pub-
hshed to explain the motives of giving aid to the people
of the Low Countries, by stating that kings and princes
were not bound to "render the reason for their actions to
any other but to God.""
The same question came up in a more practical form
with the trial of Mary Stuart. Elizabeth's reluctance to
order the execution, was caused far more by her wish not
to invalidate the divine right than by any feeling of
commiseration. The argument brought up that outside
his own domains a king was but a private person unable
to exercise royal powers, and that it was impossible for
Mary and her son to reign at the same time, made the
execution feasible, without invalidating the sanction ot
the Virgin Queen's rule.
A body of l^al opinion grew up during the Sixteenth
Century to support the most extravagant pretensions of
royalty. The prince was described as divinely ordained
to be shepherd of his people and the image of God in his
lyGOOgIC
THE THEORY OF MAJESTY 17
realm.** A French jurist Belloy, much read in England,
maintained that although the heir to the throne might be a
lunatic or a degenerate yet "he must be sacred and holy
with us and admitted without contradiction to his inherit-
ance which God and nature hath laid upon him."" Not
only did divine law require subjects to obey their prince,"
Richard Crompton, a bencher of the Inner Temple, went
so far as to declare that since kings were ordained to gov-
ern, subjects must submit to all their ordinances though
these should be against the word of God."
It is only fitting to say that not all took such extreme
views. In Scotland where the royal authority was weaker,
the political ideas of thinkers like William Major and
Buchanan were akin to the theory of elective monarchy.
Thomas More's resistance to such pretensions remains an
English glory and Hugh Latimer preached an obedience '
which did not transgress the divine law." Brynklow took
a similar view. Stubbes in spite of his Puritan conscience,
sustained a more submissive opinion. In his belief,
although a prince enacted laws against God yet the sub-
ject ought not to rebel but submit life and lands to the
royal will as otherwise he resisted the divine command."
Anglican divines steered, as usual, the middle course,
Thomas Cooper maintaining that although a Christian
pnnce cannot forbid what God command*, yet that the
Deity remained indifferent to many things where the
prince's rights were above dispute."
Men of letters took without question, the political ideas|
current around them and gave these poerical shape. The'
theory of divine right encountered no hesitations among i
them. Bishop Bale could say — [
"In his own realm a King is judge over all
By God's appointment and none may judge him again
But the Lord himself; in this the Scripture is plain '
He that condenuieth a King, condemneth God without
doubt."
King John, Edit. Cam. Soc. P, 901
lyGOOgIC
i8 TUDOR IDEALS
Such views were especially congenial to the poets, who
with the extravagant expression characteristic of the
age tried to represent the king as above mortal considera-
tions. The prince stood so high above the law that even
crime lost with him its reprehensible character. With
arguments which may have borne in mind Henry VIII,
I rirt;enp makes the villain Ateukin urge James IV to murder
his wife on the ground that
"It is no murder in a king
To end another's life to save his own
For you are not as common people be
Who die and perish with a few men's tears
But if you fail the state doth whole default
The realm is rent in twain.""
; Writers for courtly circles like Lyly professed to regard
I the actions of royalty as being only of divine concern.*
Even a bohemian like Marlowe causes Dido to reply to the
suggestion that her wish to make JEncas sovereign might
not be well received.
"Shall vulgar peasants storm at what I do
The ground is mine that gives them sustenance
The air wherein they breathe, the water, fire
All that they have, their lands, their goods, their lives."
Dido, IV, IV, 71, tq..
Like his contemporaries, Shakespeare expressed the idea
of the sacredness of royalty without giving reason to
suppose that it was foreign to his own political convictions,
j He accepted it, in the same way as he accepted other
' current beliefs and prejudices of his age. In the "Winter's
Tale" Camillo refuses to strike the anointed king. In
"Hamlet" the king says to Laertes "there's such divinity
doth hedge a king, " and MacDuff cries in horror when he
learns of Duncan's murder
lyGOOgIC
THE THEORY OF MAJESTY 19
"Most sacreligious murder hath broke up
The Lord's anointed temple."
The theories evolved to magnify the royal power,
and the extravagant praise showered on the prince were
manifestations of the patriotic loyalty of the age which
incarnated the nation in its soverdgn. The spirit of I
passionate devotion which Queen Elizabeth inspired, j
called for effusions which similar in tone are not to be [
mistaken for mere flattery. The prince was regarded as,
the nation's image and when Peele likens the Queen's
beauty to Venus and addresses her as Juno's peer and
Minerva's mate*' he symbolized in her the might of
England. Spenser's lavish praise was hardly less ori-l
ental.* Even the critical Puttenham was unabashed to
declare that the queen easily surpassed all cariier or later
poets."
The theory of majesty received its highest expression in 1
the Sixteenth Century. Jurists and poets united to express j
the divine nature of royalty and invest it with a glamour j
which in England has never since been attained. Freedom I
from restraint and the absence of what later became j
known as good taste, gave rein to the magnificent extrav- |
agances of the rime. In word and spirit the highest was"
given the highest due, and the age remained the richer
for such worship. The pedigree of the ideas which led
Charles I to the scaffold, can be traced to the theory
of majesty expressed in Tudor England.
lyGOOgIC
III. THE ROYAL AUTHORITY
Beneath its Gothic surface, the England which emerged
from the Wars of the Roses passed through an evolution so
silent at first as to mislead men into the belief that little
had changed. During the civil wars, municipal life had
been able to pursue its own development. At a time when
the feudal nobles were destroying each other a new com-
mercial class was arising. To this class who sought
security for their possessions, Henry VII's ideas of stable
centralized government appealed and its rise coincided
with that of the new dynasty.
It had been the deliberate policy of the first Tudor to
make his reign appear as the continuation of Lancastrian
rule. Some historians have therefore seen in it the end of
the Midd^e Ages rather than the birth of modem England.
But its medievalism was a husk. Only superficially did
Henry VII conform himself to the practice of the past.
His far reaching ideas of statecraft inconspicuously were
laying the foundations of the new centralized state in
which the Crown became the rallying point for instincts
of order which are inherent to man.
While the nation passed through its difficult transfor-
mation, the power of the Crown alone stood out as the
barrier which kept the country from anarchy. A sceptre
may be weakly grasped by a prince whose right to it is
unchallenged, but this becomes impossible for one who is
his own ancestor. By its very nature the rule of the first
Tudor had to be strong in order to justify its usurpation.
But beyond fiscal exactions the king interfered little in the
lives of his subjects. His rule so personal in its origin,
became impersonal in its display of authority. Tlie rec-
ords of the age are scanty, but there is nothing to sug-
lyGOOglC
THE ROYAL AUTHORITY 21
gest in them the wilfulness of his son. Toward his own I
subjects, contact remained distant and detached, exercised |
through a bureaucratic machinery. His great revolution |
was the introduction of order into England. Power, he
collected in the same way as his treasure and transmitted
both in l^acy to his son.
The characteristics of Tudor Monarchy became fixed in!
the direct rule of the prince through his appointed delc-l
gates and in the equality of all subjects before the law.'
The conception of the Crown was one of state omnipotence l ^^
centred in the person of the prince. Royal authority being
too exalted to admit of distinctions beneath it, the imme-
diate effect of absolutism tended toward what would .
to-day be styled as democratic. The benefits of this were
most noticeable where the prince became impersonal and
when his own caprices did not direct his action. Even
the tyranny of Henry VIII set in motion a machinery
acting on all alike, ordering the Council of the North
to grant justice to the poorest man against the greatest
lord.
In this sense the Tudors open the door toward our own
times in the evolution of the modern state. The excess of
instruments of authority which Henry VIII found on
his accession created a unique situation in English history,
TTieory and practice having ti^ether raised the kingly
power to its most exalted pinnacle, circumstance endowed
it with a wealth of means hitherto unknown. During the j
^lent years of preparation the material growth of England 1
had accompanied that of the throne. The new feeling of ,
security provided a fresh link between prince and people. !
The latter still unaccustomed to the novelty of order, and I
the privilege of peaceful existence, welcomed the assump-j
don of powers which had rendered this possible. Thei
growth of the Crown in its authority coincided with that-
of the country in its wealth. Whatever touched the king
touched England, and prince and subject became related
as they have never been before or since. The most inti-
lyGOOglC
pst
22 TUDOR IDEALS
mate circumstances of royal life were thus directly asso-
ciated with vast movements extending through the land
and moulding the course of its history.
The reactions of personal rule are met with in the re-
sponse to the forces of the age, of those who lived in the
prince's close proximity. Henry VIII, far more than he
realized, was the tool of circumstance. The vicissitudes
of his matrimonial experiences also represented the strug-
gle of different factions around him. The religious currents
traversing the Sixteenth Century which stirred many to
sacrifice, were utilized at Court as instruments for selfish
ambition and became still more personal, when enmeshed
in the whims of a king's fancy they effectol a reform which
changed the destiny of England. Great events depend on
the coincidence of causes. If certain of these seem fortui-
tous, deeper currents not always visible are associated by
their reactions upon them.
( The peculiarity of the Sixteenth Century lay in the per-
Kson of the prince being the pivot of both accident and de-
t sign, the connecting link between the great forces of the
age and their chance expression. The irony of history is
nowhere more ostentatious than in its absurd association
I of the most intimate proclivities of the prince as the nec-
1 essary channel for accomplishing a religious revolution.
In the situation which allowed a poor creature like Nan
Boleyn to be the playball of fortune, and to influence by
herself and through her daughter, the whole course of
English history, lay the essential novelty of the time.
Through the prince's personality, was reflected the
^ struggle of great forces into which were woven some of the
noblest and basest elements in mankind. Amid the
medley of circumstances that ensued, anyone in accord-
ance with his angle of vision or prejudice, can read almost
any interpretation into the character of the king, and fit
the traits of his nature to suit almost any theory. One
I thing only is impossible, and that is, to dissociate the
reactions of the sovereign's private life from that of his
lyGOOgIC
THE ROYAL AUTHORITV 23
subjects, or fail to recognize the influence exercised thereby t
on English history. '
When the first Tudor had picked up the crown in the
dust of the battlefield his native piety reinforced by policy
made him the readier to respect an ancient established
institution like the church. Had circumstances been .
otherwise it is inconceivable for a nature so cautious as
that of Henry VII to have risked a breach with Rome.
But it is no less inconceivable for his son to have done so
without the inheritance of authority he had received from
his father. If the rupture with the Pope was thus, in a
sense, accidental, its occurrence was only rendered possible ^^
by an expansion of instruments of power such as had
previously been non-extstent. Power breeds power and the
incentive lay in providing a direct means for increasing
this. It is M^ikely that the break was .splely due to the
king's wish to marry Anne BoleynAnd find an heir, or that
the possibility of expanding to the utmost his own au-
thority through this alliance did not suggest itself. The
divorce, however desirable, provided a tangible reason for
the elevation of the Crown.
The opportunities of kingly power became influenced
by a constructive design. The nation at first cherished no
marked wish for the king to assert his supremacy in the
Church. England as a whole was a religious country, but
its feeling was instinctive and traditional rather than
conscious. It was ready to acquiesce in whatever the\^_„.^
king did so long as he represented authority and men's!
immediate interests were not affected by his changes.)
The country if not indifferent, was still largely inarticulate
in its mode of expression, and lacked the organization or
leadership to centralize any opposition beyond isolated
movements which remained sporadic and easily sup-
pressed. Where later these grew up they were provincial
and local, weighted with the odium of foreign inspiration.
TTie royal power thus benefited by the weakness of its
enemies as well as by its own design. To the nation the
lyGOOgIC
i4 TUDOR IDEALS
machinery of the Crown represented a strong conscious
force handicapped by no restrictions and standing for
stability and order. The national unity was centred
in the throne and when Henry VIII boasted that he
was king, pope and emperor in his own domains, he
counted with reason on the submissive obedience of his
subjects.
Incarnating the state, the king arrogated the right to
control its belief. Assuming the power of the papacy he
took over the determination of his subjects' convictions
and could declare that the Bible was only to be read "as
the prince and the policy of the realm shall think conven-
ient so to be tolerated." The roles were now reversed.
Instead of the Church encroaching on secular matters the
prince directed the creed. A new conception of the Crown
evolved by circumstance but deriving its example from
pagan Rome, now regulated the lives of British Christians.
The Venetian Ambassador Michele could report to his
state that the example and authority of the sovereign was
all powerful with the English, and that religion was valued
as inculcating the duty due to the prince. His subjects
believed as he believed. They would be as zealous fol-
lowers of the Mohammedan or Jewish faith if the king
professed either or commanded them to do stiS- — -
The spirit of religious intolerance which prevailed was
paradoxically due to this sudden irruption of secular
authority. With its newly assumed powers the Crown
was ambitious to extirpate the last roots of ecclesiastical
independence and prove that it could perform spiritual
functions no less well than the Church whose easy indul-
gence dating from the early days of the Renaissance had
now to yield before a harsher practice. Revolt and tyr-
anny went hand-in^love. Churchmen were regarded as
subjects of the Crown taking out commissions like other
officers and religion became merely one side of the State.
The frequent shifts of men like Gardiner, Paget and Cecil
cannot be laid down solely to indifference, fear or ambition.
lyGOOgIC
THE ROYAL AUTHORITY 25
but were due to belief as well — sincere belief in the royal
supremacy to decide questions of faith.
The Sixteenth Century Englishman was not laxer in his
creed because of such compliance. Religious observance
was universal and far from perfunctory. It was a duty
toward the State. Elizabeth exacted it and continued her]
father's policy of regarding churchmen as mere officers ofj
the Crown, writing in famous words to the Bishop of
Ely "By God I will unfrock you." Bishops themselves
defended such ideas. The break from Rome after the
disorder of reform under Edward VI, and the brief Catho-
lic revival, led to the reconstruction of the Church edifice
under royal authority. The apologists of the new Anglican
church were conscientiously imbued with these ideas.
Royal authority commanded even in religion.* By such
reasoning men felt no misgiving in changing their ritual
with their sovereign.
In matters of faith the Sixteenth Century presents the
odd paradox of the greatest suppleness contrasted with a
fervour of faith and a spirit of martyrdom. But the ideas
of the martyrs had been moulded by convictions born
in other ages. Those most typical of the life of their time
followed the prince in ready compliance to his wishes.
lyGOOgIC
IV. THE PRINCE AND HIS SUBJECTS
Okce the royal power had been fully acknowledged, the
prince's relations with his subjects were simple enough and
except on ceremonial occasions quite unrestrained. fHenry
VII was, by inclination, the mostaloof of monarchs whose
pale and careworn features arc hardly more remote to-day
than they were to most of his contemporaries.' Yet an
anonymous ItaUan traveller relates that twice he dined at
court with between six and seven hundred persons.' The
ItaUan was almost certainly without personal importance
but found nothing strange in attending royal banquets.
Such popular access was not the least significant feature
of life around the throne. At a time when the kingly office
reached its highest pinnacle there was no difficulty for any
subject to secure access at least to the outer reaches of
royalty. When Ralph Hythloday fresh from Utopia is
advised to go to "some king's court" and relate his story
to the prince, such possibility was not merely Utopian.
The hierarchy around the throne had not yet assumed
rigidity and vestiges of former disorder, handed down
from a more primitive age, could still be found in the free-
dom of relations prevailing. Katherinc of Aragon counted
her husband's linen. The expansion of the royal power
had been so sudden that there was no time to evolve the
infinite gradations of rank or those barriers of ceremony
which at lesser moments mark the ingenuity of small
minds. Moreover the close inrimacy of prince and people
Iwas favoured as a matter of policy. A dynasty like the
Tudor, new on the throne, and without the loyalty or in-
rimacy derived from long hereditary associarion, would
naturally seek to draw its popularity from the people.
Imbued as was Henry VIII with the sense of his own
lyGOOgIC
THE PRINCE AND HIS SUBJECTS 27
grandeur, he made no artificial attempt to separate him-
self from his subjects. An easy familiarity marked his
intercourse. When the Princess Mary was still a baby
in arms, he would himself carry her into the Presence
Chamber and show her to the courtiers and foreign envoys.
No one could be more affable when he chose and few
pictures are more pleasing than that of the young King
walking arm in arm with Thomas More in his Chelsea
garden.
Nor was such easy intercourse peculiar to the Tudors. In
Scotland the frequent peregrinations of the court from one
small town to another, drew king and subjects together
and made court incidents a matter of common knowledge.*
In England numerous festivities provided occasion for
bringing the populace into close contact with royalty.
The humblest were freely admitted to witness the revelries,
and when on one famous occasion at Richmond, the
crowd broke up the pageant and stripped courtiers and
king almost to the skin, the latter in spite of his imperious
pride treated the matter jocosely.
In restricting the vision of the past to undue utilitarian-
ism one neglects aspects of life which without purpose
in any ultimate sense withal demand their satisfaction.
By an ancient convention greatness needs its outward sign,
and in alt ages the love of pomp has created a setting to
gratify this sense and make it coincide with the instinct of
pleasure. Since the early Middle Ages the taste for
pageantry offered occasion for the mighty to indulge
their own fondness for display and provide at the same
time for the amusement of those below them. When the
value of the individual is depressed into the social unit
in which he is classed, his importance derives from this
more than from his personal merit, with the result that
greater significance is attached to ceremonial occasions.
Festivities therefore assumed a value out of all proportion
to their inherent nature. At court they impressed and
amused the people and created a link not without its
lyGOOgIC
i8 TUDOR IDEALS
purpose in binding together by a common interest different
classes of the population. How is it otherwise passible to
explain the fact that, during the reign of a prince so fond
of his privacy as Henry VII so much attention should have
been paid to spectacles and festivities.
Already, Duke Humphrey of Gloucester had used his
duties as Great Chamberlain to organize pageants whose
splendour impressed the imagination of the early chronic-
lers. In the reign of Henry VIII the pages of Hall and
Cavendish are filled far more with descriptions of pag-
eantry than with political events. It seemed appropriate
for the Uves of the great to be taken up by magnificent
pleasures. The English people found more interest in
such spectacles than in the dull acts of Parliament.
Where old traditions are not of a nature to threaten any
policy or interest within the state, they survive freely
amid the new and acquire fresh vigour in accordance with
the taste of the day. The men who boldly broke down
whatever blocked the path of their ambition, were keen to
preserve ancient amusements and usages when these did
no^ affect their personal interests. Rulers enlarged the
festive occasions of life, utilizing these in order to create an
atmosphere of grandeur around their own acts. New ideas
did not affect the outward circumstances of existence.
The wish for the grandiose was generalized, while to add
personal incentive, elaborate ceremonial festivities were
organized by obscure officials and artisans whose impor-
tance and profit was tied up with such occasions. One
is apt to forget the pressure of numerous hangers-on and
tradesmen whose opportunity for gain came through
instilling these tastes.
The magnificence of Henry VIII was seen to best ad-
vantage in his entertainments or those arranged for him
by his Cardinal Minister. When on one occasion Wolsey
received the king he came with a dozen of his suite dis-
guised as shepherds for whom a banquet was spread "in so
got^eous a sort and costly manner that it was a pleasure
lyGOOgIC
THE PRINCE AND HIS SUBJECTS 29
to behold."* The art and learning of the age were enlisted
to gratify such tastes. Flemish and Italian artisans lent
their skill, while scholarship left its stamp on the pag-
eantry.
All classes of the population could take part as actors or
spectators on great festive occasions. When Queen Eliza-
beth made her triumphal entry into London the houses
along the route were bedecked with arras, carpets and
silks. Cheapside was bright with cloth of gold and silver,
and velvet of all colors, while all the crafts stood in their
livery from St. Michael to Aldgate. By these spectacles
a personal contact was established between court and
people. After such a ceremony, every Londoner could feel
that at one moment of his life he had been near to his
sovereign. The queen herself welcomed these occasions
and the many "progresses" of her rdgn were perhaps
undertaken as tnuch from motives of policy as to indulge
her personal taste for display.
Royal journeys brought about a' wide and familiar
diffusion of knowledge regarding the ceremonies attending
the presence of Majesty. Renaissance learning became
associated in the popular mind with the organization of
court festivities, and spread a pseudo-classical knowledge
over the land. When Queen Elizabeth was received in a
provincial town like Norwich, in the procession welcoming
her, were those who took the part of pagan divinities and
recited verses to her in Latin and in Greek.*
Such ceremonies were the invariable accompaniment of
a royal visit. When the Queen made her "pre^ess"
through Suffolk and Norfolk, everywhere nymphs and
fairies addressed her in the worst classical style.'
In "Edward II," Marlowe could describe the pleasures
of the prince:
"Music and poetry are his delight
Therefore I'll have Italian masques by night
Sweet speeches, comedies and pleasing shows."
lyGOOgIC
30 TUDOR IDEALS
The pomp, the learning, the craftsmanship of the age,
united in a result which seems to our modern view trivial
but which even in a utilitarian sense possessed social and
educational value. The joiners in "Midsummer's Night's
Dream" had less schooling than modern workmen, but
they were alive to a realm of fancy which exists no more.
The blending of all classes in common diversions was to
have its effect as a civilizing influence by raising the mass,
teaching it to appreciate other values, and keeping alive
those bonds of sympathy which united the different
dements of one nation. Such occasions favoured the ideas
of the Renaissance spreading through the land till they
became known to the farmer's boy who grew to man-
hood in a village on the Avon.
Apart from jealousy of their own prerogatives, both
Henry VIII and Elizabeth were in closer human contact
with their subjects than any monarch before or since on
the British throne. In one sense this helped to compen-
sate for the scant authority of representative institutions.
Among the reasons which contributed to the exaltation of
the royal power was the identification of the nation with
its princes. England found itself represented in the person
of its sovereign far better than by the lawyers and country
squires often unwillingly sitting in Parliament. The
qualities which the people discovered in their ruler, his
love of sport and his exuberant boisterousness were of a
nature to endear him to all classes. Though the growth of
the State rendered personal contact more difficult than it
had been in days when a king administered justice under a
tree, there were survivals of such earlier relations, if only
at the Easter Ceremonies when be^ars' feet were washed.
Theoretically, at least, the prince stood in permanent
relation to his subjects as the corrector of injustice, "to
see that there be no unpreaching prelates in his realm, nor
bribing judges, to see to all estates, to provide for the poor,
to see victuals good cheap. "* And a popular writer of the
time could say that the " King is anointed to be a defence
lyGOOgIC
THE PRINCE AND HIS SUBJECTS 31
unto the people that they be not oppressed nor over-
yoked."'
In the early years of his reign, Henry VIII had felt heav-
ily the sense of obligation of his duties. He expressed
surprise when he heard of Francis I's popularity remark-
ing that the French had little reason to love a monarch
who plunged them at once into war. But the settled
habit of ms own power and the growth of his worst in- ^
stincts soon rid him of such solicitude. He could after-
ward tell Marillac, the French Ambassador, that he had a
miserable people to govern whom he would speedily so
impoverish that they would not dare to raise their heads
against him. His idea of England was that of a vast estate
where he felt able to do as he liked. Although his popu-
larity waned with his growing tyranny, the royal authority
remained unbroken to the end.
The evolution toward equality perhaps originated more
than is commonly suspected through the State bang
r^arded as the personal preserve of the Crown. This
conwction, common to the Tudors, was less peculiar to
them than to the age of which they were the instruments.
Edward VI, boy though he was, entertained the same idea
of power, and Mary Tudor though more human and far
more respectable than either her father or her sister,
shared the same feelings of authority in her wish to bestow
England on her Spanish husband. How much longer the
nation would have tolerated such ideas must remain a
moot question. Ready enough to accept abuses of royal
authority at home, the people with instinctive nationalism,
were far less submissive before the risk of foreign dom-
ination, and the unpopular Spanish policy undoubtedly
roused public opinion to its danger.
England was undergoing such rapid changes that the
relations between Crown and people were unsettled. But
Mary's early death prevented difficulties coming to a head,
and Elizabeth from her accession proved astute enough,
when shaping her course, to avoid the clash between oppos-
lyGOOglC
32 TUDOR IDEALS
ing ideas and thereby delay the struggle till another reign.
IMore cautious than her father, the insecurity of her early
experiences made her set out deliberately to win her
people's affections. With this in view, she took part in
May Games and Morris dances. Sir Christopher Hatton
described her as fishing for men's souls. She possessed
the political sagacity allowing her under all circumstances
to make appeal to their love.
Her greatness came, in being the first modem ruler to
grasp the fact that the lower was the level of authority the
more solid became its base. No prince was ever so great
a courtier of her people.' Writing to Philip II who
claimed her gratitude for the Crown she replied that she
owed this only to her subjects. In her speech to the army
at Tilbury when Spanish invasion threatened she declared
that she had always placed her chief strength in thdr
loyalty and good will, and in one of her last addresses
before Parliament she exclaimed, "Though God hath
raised me high yet this I account the glory of my crown
that I have reigned with your loves.*"
No one dared openly to say so, yet not a few resented
this quest for popularity. The Queen's rule was little
relished by many of the English nobility," but innumer-
able broadsides hawked through the streets remote from
the flattery of the court," attest the depth of affection
she inspired in her people. John Stubbes when his right
hand had been cut off for having petitioned against the
royal marriage raised his hat with his left and shouted
" God Save the Queen ! *'
I Elizabeth instilled in her subjects' hearts real affection
along with a feeling of chivalry which was her due as a
woman. Yet neither her character nor that of her father
was typically English. Royalty is apt to develop char-
acteristics of its own, but it would be a gross slander on the
English nation to discern representative British traits in
the egregious vanity, duplicity, and ruthlessness, common
to both monarchs. Their characters were more peculiar to
lyGOOgIC
THE PRINCE AND HIS SUBJECTS 33
the Tudor family, to the age and to circumstance, than to
the land over which they ruled. It could not well be other-
wise. Elizabeth's real nationalism came out, in striving
for the greatness of her kingdom which she did in the full
measure of her statesmanship. Her representative nature
found expression in the fact that all her interests were
identified with its welfare. She herself was as little typic-
ally English as Napoleon was French. Her tastes, her af-
fections, her ambitions, were blended with the kingdom
over which she ruled so wisely. But her personal character
was peculiar to herself and to the necessities of her position.
If Elizabeth was shrewd enough to guess the strength
of the rising tide and flatter the people into loyalty to her
rule, if she could answer on occasion, that it was the
prince's duty to hold the highest in equal right with the
lowest, and that she was as much queen of the one as of
the other,** she was at heart far more conservarive in her
respect for social divisions than her father had ever shown
himself. With the spirit of Tory democracy, she displayed I </
a tendency to support the ancient nobility and it was I
regarded as a sign of the times that she never bestowed
her favour on a mere new man.**
After the disorder brought about by Henry VIII's revo-j
lutionary changes, a new fabric of stability was growing/
up in England on broader foundations than the old, yeU %.
mindful of those traditions which invariably accompanw
the rise of any propertied class. Elizabeth felt herself to bq
the leader of this class whose success following the elevatiotr
of her family to the throne, embraced the most active
minds in the nation. Its members, with several genera-
tions behind them, had already adjusted themselves to the
(Ugnidesof their newly acquired rank. In her speech to
the Lords on her accession, she drew attention to thdr
various origins in order to claim loyalty on different
grotmds. The ancient nobility had been able to inherit
thdr estates in security, while the others possessed the
experience of office given them by her father."
lyGOOgIC
34 TUDOR IDEALS
Such distinctions, still true at the beginning of her reign
were rapidly to diminish in importance. In the famous
scene between Cecil and Essex, the former prefaced his
remarks by stating that he was inferior in nobility, but his
implied superiority in other respects was significant of the
■relative value attached to blood. As a caste, the nobles
had become a decorative feature of the Court and could
henceforth safely be employed in the task of government
without danger to the royal authority.
Where Elizabeth showed herself to be the true daughter
of her father, was amid circumstances not immediately
under the public eye. With her ministers she was arrogant
and haughty, continually reminding them that she had
been deep in affairs of state since the cradle." The aim of
her policy was more moderate than theirs, as when they
preceded her in realizing the inevitable struggle with
Spain.
In dealing with problems and not men, she had always
been inclined to caution and compromise. It was when
she felt herself on firm ground that her native arrogance
and love of authority were displayed without restraint.
She had confidence in her own judgment on such occasions,
"as though our long experience in government had not
yet taught us to discover what were fit for us to do in
matters of our state." " The power of the queen lay in the
ability to impress her personality on everyone. Fortified
by experience and the prestige of success, she felt able to
trace her own line of conduct without r^ard to advice,
and to stand out, if need be, against all her ministers.
When their policy in helping the Low Countries was at
variance with her own, when even Walsingham could write
that he found her "daily more unapt to embrace any
matter of weight" " she would sharply tell her envoy. Sir
Thomas Heneage, to do as he was bid and refused to be
bound by what he had told the Dutch about her. She
wrote in her own hand, "We princes be wary enough of
our bai^ains, think you 1 will be bound by your speech to
lyGOOgIC
THE PRINCE AND HIS SUBJECTS 35
make no peace for mine own matters without their con-
sent." "
No more than her father, could she forgive any attempt |
on the part of a subject to assert his independence. Lei-
cester, despatched by her to the Low Countries, was offered
practically sovereign powers by the United Provinces in
the hope of binding the Queen to their cause. For a time,
it seemed as if her favour sufficed to confer a Crown.
Leicester's ambitious vanity may well have fondled this
hope, which Cecil, Walsingham, and Davison all approved.
But the queen was deeply offended by his accepting a
dignity which appeared to detract from her own authority.
Tile gossip at court that Lady Leicester was going over to
i'oin her husband with a far greater train and pomp than
ler own, fanned such flames.'* She rebuked her favourite
with the reminder that she had raised him out of the dust
and said sharply to Sir Thomas Sherley who had tried to
pacify her — "You know my mind. I may not endure that
any man shall alter my commission and the authority that
I gave him upon his own fancies and without me." ™
Leicester humbly demeaned himself by the most ful-
some flattery that no kingdom in the world could make
amends for her displeasure, and regained her favour. A
nature less pliable like that of Essex protested with more
independence than judgment, that he would never serve as
a servant after the queen had boxed his ears for turning his
back upon her. He was soon to break his wings against
the iron determination of his royal mistress who sent him
to the scaffold and counselled Henry IV of France to
use a "mild severity" and cut off heads in time. With
reason the queen could call herself an old fox and remind
James of Scotland that she could penetrate through
his intrigues.**
The extraordinary mixture of foolish foible and high
statesmanship displayed by Elizabeth, is best explained
by the reacdons of her rule proving most beneficial as
they increased in distance from the royal person. As
lyGOOgIC
36 TUDOR IDEALS
Queen of England, no sovereign saw with loftier idew, and
few have overcome greater difficulties. As a woman, none
could be more treacherous, niggardly, and absurd. Only
a few years before her death, the French Ambassador
de Maisse, describes his reception by her, clad in a dress
of silver and scarlet gauze with open sleeves lined with
red taffetas and small sleeves hanging to the ground. He
noticed that the front of her dress was cut open very far
down yet she would open it still farther. Beneath her
reddish wig hung bangles and pearls. Her neck was
wrinkled, her teeth yellow and of uneven length, with
many missing which made it hard to understand her when
she spoke quickly. But in conversation he found her
simple and gracious, though still expecting compliments."
Such was the woman in whose reign were laid the founda-
tions of modem England's greatness.
t: Go Ogle
V. THE COURT
The importance of the court grew with the new jpowerl
of the Crown. In a government so personal as that ofl
the Tudors, whoever sought advancement in public/
hfe was drawn to the court. Like in oriental States,
nearness to the prince far more than office, conferred
power, and a lustre all the brighter because in an age
when ambition ran high, other avenues of distinction
were non-existent or restricted. The shadow of royal
authority falling on whoever came into contact with
the prince, made the court assume far greater impor-
tance than before, when the power of the Crown had
been limited, or afterward, when that of other institu-
tions had increased. Where the life of the nation was
not anchored to ordinary pursuits, instead of trickling
through innumerable channels, it was centred around
the person of the king. The royal lead made itself felt
far more widely than in statecraft or in manners.
In the early part of the Sixteenth Century, perhaps, i
for the only time in English history the Crown assumed
the intellectual and spiritual direction of the country./
It served yet another purpose. The court was a
threshold where foreigners were welcome without run-
ning counter to the insular prejudice which elsewhere
was prone to reject whatever had not been cast in a
British mould. The King was fond of foreign ideas
and fashions for their own sake, and inclined by taste
and policy to foreigners, who, solely keen to please him,
offered no menace to his rule. The court performed
in this a useful function as a national vestibule, where
novelties from abroad could be weighed and sifted in an
intermediate stage to test their adaptability to assume
British denizenslup.
lyGOOgIC
38 TUDOR IDEALS
Under Henry VII, the court had remained as in-
conspicuous as the royal power permitted- The first
Tudor concerned only with the business of state showed
himself averse to the display of its pomp. His body-
guard had been created, both as a matter of personal
security and an instrument of executive policy copied
from the French example. At his table he kept up
medieval traditions of hospitality, but he was personally
indiflFerent to those spectacular devices so dear to the
Renaissance which were soon to be utilized for im-
pressing the imagination with the magnificence of roy-
alty. His own tastes were too simple to employ the
arts as a setting to majesty. In the external display
of his authority Henry VII continued former practices,
as far as he could, partly by inclination, partly, perhaps,
the better to disguise the novelty of his own reign. The
importance of his court was incommensurate with that
of the Crown and bore no relation to the expanded power
of royalty.
A nation in the rapid evolution of growth, marshals
its forces with uneven speed. The pressure of creative
strength is never uniform through the country and the
ratio of progress varies, in accordance with the dis-
tance from the focal points of power. The Crown at
the most vigorous moment of its growth, could not
long leave neglected its own immediate surroundings,
and it was certain that an effort would soon be made
to bring these into line, with the expansion of the rest of
its authority. In the midst of the new growths brought
in by the Renaissance, at times forming part of these
and often oddly blended, lingered numerous survivals
of ancient traditions showing the essential continuity of
English life. Often the same individual, as if to add to the
confusion, betrayed contradictory tendencies in his char-
acter. Lord Surrey,for instance, apart from the modernity
of his poetic innovations, remained in his medieval sense
of birth privilege, an anachronism from an older age.
lyGOOgIC
THE COURT 39
The court of Henry VIII was a curious mixture of men
and fashions, intensely alive yet still imperfectly fused
and onbradng all the discrepancies of its varying origins.
The king brought to its organization his own enormous
vitality and love of display. With Eastern ideas of the
equality of all subjects in the dust beneath him, with the
tastes of the Renaissance for arts and letters, he welcomed
everyone — musicians, painters and theologians. To the
creation of his court he added the accompaniments of
splendour characteristic of the age. By its luxury and!
pomp as well as by its proximity to the prince, it becamet
the centre of national activity. The magnificence or
English courtly surroundings impressed foreign observers,
and the Papal Legate Chieregati writing in 1517 to Isabella
d'Este, could say admiringly that " the wealth and civi-
lization of the world are here."' Partly by taste, partly
by policy, the prince favoured whatever conduced to such
splendour, reviving medieval diversions like the tourna- \
ment at the same time as he favoured Renaissance learn- 1
ing and art.
The spectacular sides of the court were only one side in
an activity which governed the life of the nation. Henry
VIII might find his boon companion in Suffolk, but for his
counsellors he looked to Wolsey and Cromwell. The court
thus embraced two disrinct elements — the one ornamental,
the other practical, which separated in their extremes,
tended to blend together especially in those minor offices
where the need for ability receded before more decorative
requirements. Both sides converged in the person of the
prince, and represented the different aspects of his life.
Both depended entirely on him. As government was
personal, the degree of favour could daily be gauged by the
consideration enjoyed close to the throne.
TTie crowd of sycophants turned against whoever lost
the royal favour. The first sign of Cromwell's disgrace was
when on his way to the Council Chamber no one stooped
to pick up his hat which the wind had blown off. The
lyGOOgIC
4D TUDOR IDEALS
Duke of Norfolk jested at the trial of his niece Katherine
Howard, while her own brother acted as if nothing amiss
had occurred.* Amid such circumstances the absolute
power of the prince to dispose of his subjects' lives and
fortunes conduced to the development of the courtiers'
talents. The monarch's character became an object of
/intense study, and the ability to please proved the most
I valuable of gifts. TTie struggle was keen, and certain arts
of success the practice of which was current have now
^ disappeared from esteem if not from life.
The fickleness of princes and the mutability of their
sympathies, their periods of suspicion and hatred, of clem-
ency and severity were carefully studied and royal psychol-
ogy was as anxiously discussed at Hampton Court as in
the golden palace at Byzantium. Bacon, as full of shrewd
w observation as devoid of character, remarks that princes,
because they are at the top of human desire, are best
, interpreted by their nature and private persons by their
'^J ends. And he advised Essex to treat the queen with obse-
quiousness, to avoid military fame certain to arouse um-
brage, and to take up projects which could then be aban-
doned seemingly in deference to her wishes. He was urged
to imitate her favourites Hatton and Lucester in his habits,
apparel and gestures.* Although himself the most unruly
of courtiers Essex felt till the last that his entire horizon
was bounded by the royal pleasure.
The memory of Empson, and Dudley, of Wolsey, and
Cromwell, was still too fresh for men not to live in appre-
hension of the prince's purpose. After Essex's first alter-
cation with the Queen, it was remarked that princes were
rarely reconciled to those they had offended. One had to
guess if a favourite's eclipse, was temporary as with
Leicester, or permanent, and it took skilful steering to
know if the wiser course lay in joining the wolves who de-
voured their victim or in reserving friendship for the fallen.
The spirit of loyalty, so intense among the people,
became less fervid as soon as one approached the throne.
lyGOOgIC
THE COURT 41
Those brought into close contact with the prince who
suffered from his whims became more critical than the
multitude whose loyalty was preserved by distance. An-
independence of judgment little in line with the common-
places of adulation was often met with at Court. Open
expressions are rare, but Lord Warwick writing to Leices-
ter then in temporary disgrace, advised him to distrust
the Queen's oath. Her friendship was not to be relied on
while "her malice is great and unquenchable." Nowhere
was franker speech heard than in the intimacy of cour-
tiers. A remark made by Essex that the Queen was no less
crooked in mind than in body, repeated to her, rankled
the most*
As the ability to please the prince became the avenue
for preferment, court life was but little conducive to
elevation of character while the courtier grew inclined to
become a tool indifferent to whatever did not lead to royal
favour. Usually without independent standing of his own,
he was compelled to show pliability and debasement.
Spenser could write that "he doth soonest rise that best
■can handle his deceitful arts.* The supremacy of the
throne was so absolute, and subservience so entire, that
self-respect was easily forgotten. The Duke of Suffolk
after he had abused the king's confidence by marrying his
sister, owed probably his life and certainly his return to
favour to the great Cardinal, yet turned treacherously
against his benefactor in the hour of his di^race. Later
Bacon turned against Essex. In the centre of the nation's
life and at a heroic moment of its history, the arts of
success were often at variance with the most elementary
instincts of decency.
The royal example of magnificence contributed to such
lowering of character. The King's display was on a scale
requiring vast wealth, which in turn was often acquired
by wholesale spoliation. The sovereign was ready to
associate his favourites in the spoils, and lawyers and
courtiers joined in the general scramble for the riches of
lyGOOgIC
42 TUDOR IDEALS
their victims. The extravagant scale of life in royal
surroundings engendered rapacity. More and more money
became necessary to keep up the train of life. The Duke
of Buckingham wore a gown wrought of needle-work set
upon doth of tissue and furred with sable, valued at
£1500. The garment of a simple Kntght like Sir Nicholas
Vaux was then valued at £1000. The prevailing spirit of
greed and the ruthlessness of acquisition disgraced the
court. Even Surrey's wearing apparel was distributed
among his enemies after his execution, the Duke of
Somerset taking the greater part.'
Men trafficked almost at court and many nobles were
engaged in trade. The King himself seems to have lent
money and taken as a pledge the armour of Charles the
Bold. Favourites of royalty found fortune in its shadow.
Wolsey's wealth was proverbial, Cromwell's hardly less.
A poor lad like Mark Smeaton after a few months in the
Queen's favour, could buy horses and arms and parade
liveries such as no lord of rank could excel.^ Miserly as
was Elizabeth, those on whom she smiled prospered
mightily. If her spoliations were less flagrant than those
of her father, she enriched her favourites by the grant of
monopolies and one of the first signs of her displeasure
against Essex, was when she refused to renew his profitable
farming of sweet wines." A " mere vegetable of the court"
like Hatton, by respectful fJattery and greater brains than
he was credited with by his contemporaries, secured vast
riches and the Chancellorship. The chronicle of his
accumulation may be cited as an instance of the benefits
of royal favour. In 1582 he obtained the Manor of Parva
Weldon and other lands; in 1585 the keepership of the
forest of Rockingham and the Isle of Purbeck; in 1586 the
site of the Monastery of Brier and several manors; in 1587
the domain of Naseby, the Manor and rectory of West
Drayton and Perry Place in Middlessex, part of the lands
forfeited by Lord Paget being bestowed on him while he
also shared lai^ely in estates forfeited by rebels in Ireland.'
lyGOOgIC
THE COURT 43
Although careers so successful were the exception yet,
where the rewards of favour were great, keen rivalry in
the art of pleasing was naturally found in the court
atmosphere. Success or failure depended on the acquisi-
tion of such talents and skilled preparation became nece&-
sary to fit the courtier for his task.
Surrey has described the more ornamental side of this
training. One follows his own occupations as a youth at
Windsor passing his time in riding, dancing, tennis, and
the chase. If Surrey's own talents did not offer the best
Eroof to the contrary, it might be supposed that nothing
ad changed in education since the Middle Ages, and that
outwardly the courtier type still conformed to the older
model. Alongside of such practices had grown up another
idea, which demanded the exercise of greater talents than
mere proficiency in sports and pastimes.
In every European country but especially in Italy
where most Renaissance ideas originated, a higher educa-
tion was now exacted. An entire literature arose on the
subject and such works '" either In the original or else
translated, found their way into England. For the most
part they were written in that impersonal spirit of realism
which marked the Italian mind of the Sixteenth Century.
The courtier's life, training and endowments, were all dis-
cussed in the light of the moral, social and intellectual as-
pects of his duties. With princes as learned as were the
Tudors, the courtiers followed suit and their education be-
came matter of the most serious moment. Ascham who
was no flatterer, praised the scholarship of some of the
young noblemen at court, while contemporaries dwelt on
their literary skill and knowledge of languages ancient and
modern. For poets of such distinction as Surrey and
Wyatt, Sackville and Sidney, to have graced the court,
within the reigns of father and daughter, was no slight
achievement. The attempt to seek distincrion in poetry
was in Itself a tribute to letters. Puttenham took
pmns to remind his reader that his work on poetry was
lyGOOgIC
4+ TUDOR IDEALS
intended for the training of "young gentlemen or idle
courtiers."
Toward the latter part of the century, a deliberate
effort was made to create almost artificially a more con-
scious courtier type. The absurdities of Euphuism have
often been held to ridicule, but its signiBcance lay in
presenting a model of courtliness which depended not on
birth or talent, but on speech. It aimed to establish a
circle whose refinement would mark a reaction from the
grossness of the age, and whose basis for distinction should
rest on cultivation and the wish to balance mind and body.
The courtier excelling in arms and letters, was expected to
do all things well. His accomplishments when as real as
those which graced a Wyatt, formed the brighter side of a
life which in most respects was unsatisfactory. Putten-
ham has drawn the picture of a courtier who while pre-
tending to be at work despatching crown business was in
reality idling." The Huguenot Languet was unimpressed
by what he saw at the English court, finding its habits
unmanly and its courtesy affected." An era smce become
a by-word for manliness, was condemned by its contempo-
raries for effeminacy."
Toward the end of Elizabeth's reign, the importance of
the court was waning in the national life, although super-
ficially nothing had changed. The Virgin Queen enjoyed
her subjects' love and veneration. Her court was as
brilliant as her father's, her progresses still more magnifi-
cent. But a new life had begun to open beyond, which
touched even the surroundings nearest to the queen. Sid-
ney's career as a courtier presented only the least memor-
able side of his activities. Yet he dared to speak his mind
to a sovereign who, more than anyone, resented such
interference; his letter to dissuade her from marrying the
son of the "Jezebel of the Age," Catherine de Medici, was
written with courage as high as he displayed at Zutphen.
His friend and biographer Fulke Grevtlle could find
that subjects might preserve independence toward thdr
lyGoogIc \
THE COURT 45
sovereign by "paying humble tribute in manner, though
not in matter," '* and Spenser, with Sidney in his mind,
portrayed the perfect courtier who hating flattery, cared
only for honour and who in his prince's service was always
ready for arms or civil governance.'*
Even Sidney had on occasion to bend to the royal will
and obey the queen, when she refused to let him embark
on his desired voyage around the world. Independence
was not the courtier's lot, and when a keen soldier like the
future Lord Mountjoy, left without consent, to fight as a
volunteer in France, he was ordered back and reviled by
the queen for his audacity. The glamour of the court
reflected little of its true life. Utter dependence on a I
capricious sovereign's whims was only one side of the evil. I
Nowhere was poverty more oppressive for those who *■
lacked the skill to profit by its opportunities. Sidney when
overwhelmed by money difficulties, wrote to Hatton, that
he must forget how to blush and be^ed his aid to obtain
the queen's signature for some grant which might help
him out of trouble."
To most men, the court spelled misery and disappoint- \
ment. A few independent spirits like More preferred the
privacy of their homes and wrote feelingly of the " bondage
unto kings." His traveller from Utopia spurning wealth
and position chose his personal liberty. Those who
knew its pitfalls could like Sir Amyas Poulet write to
congratulate a friend on being called " from the dangerous
and uncertain estate of Princes' courts to live in the
country. 1^ But more often even those most alive to its
dangers remained fascinated by the glamour. Roger
Ascham could write feelingly about its slipperiness, but
continued in the royal service until he died in poverty.
The poetic tradition '* of satire against court life revived]
from Alexandrian example was in part conventional, inj
part caused by disappointment. The opposite and con-
part caused by disappointment, ihe opposite and con- \
flicting desire for privacy and worldUness existed much as j
to-day — though the goal of such ambition was then only to
lyGOOgIC
46 TUDOR IDEALS
be found around the prince's person. The distaste was
often strong yet not so strong as the attraction for who-
ever sought the brilliancy of life. Spenser who had in vain
attempted to succeed at court, could say with injured
sensitiveness, "What hell it is in suing long to bide.""
Lyly wrote, for once with the accent of truth, that the
court shone for those not there but singed its dwellers, and
Spenser was only the most gifted of the many singed.
lyGOOgIC
VI. THE TRAINING FOR AUTHORITY
Phiup de CoMiNEs who was widely read in England,
urged princes to read history as the best way to acquire
wisdom, basing his argument on the ground that they
were surrounded by flatterers and the span of life was
insufficient for experience. Lack of education was never j
a Tudor failing, and no princes were ever more carefully 1
prepared for the practice of authority. I
The founder of the dynasty not being bom to the purple,
was in himself hardly a test of what might be expected
from a prince of the Renaissance, His native qualities of
statesmanship more than outweighed any deficiencies
in early education. Yet judged even by narrow standards,
he was not wanting in letters, for his French reading was
extensive and he possessed enough familiarity with the
ancient tongue to correspond in Latin with Cardinal
Adrian di Castello. Bacon described him as studious
rather than learned. Knowing his own shortcomings,
and alive to the fact that the new power of the prince
found its theoretical justification in classical example, he
became all the more careful in his children's instruction. •
The royal family overtopped the nobles in knowledge!
as much as in authority. Henry VIII's scholarly attain-!
ments are too well known to require comment. His
Latin was good enough to astonish Erasmus who wrongly
suspected that he had been assisted in his correspond-
ence.* His interest in theology was considerable if unfor-
tunate. He was familiar with several modem tongues, had
a smattering of various subjects and possessed a real
knowledge of music. During the early years of his rdgn,
study took up no mean part of his time and contributed
to the impression created abroad, that his personality
was n^li|^ble. But the Tudor lore of authority allowed
lyGOOgIC
48 TUDOR IDEALS
no one long to usurp royal prerogatives, and their faults
never proceeded from ignorance. The day was over for
a prince to be as unlettered as Henry VI whose stupidity
passed for holiness. On the Scottish throne, James IV
enjoyed fame for his knowledge of six languages besides
that of "the savages who Hvein some parts of Scodand."
^ The prince of the Renaissance felt inclined to scholar-
ship from taste and policy, and the children of royalty
were almost oppressively instructed. At eight years
of age, Henry Vlll's illegitimate son, the Duke of Rich-
mond, was able to translate and construe any passage
of Cfesar. His tutor, George Cotton, with more sense
than the pedagc^ue Croke, tried to mitigate the rigour
of such studies by withdrawing the boy to out-of-door
amusements. In their wish to fit Edward VI for affairs
of state his teachers propounded such questions of pd-
icy to the boy as the comparative merits of democracy
and aristocracy.* The young prince received the full
classical training of his age and foreign ambassadors
could only marvel at his skill in Latin.*
I The education of the two princesses was as thorough,
Mary's solid instruction has been undeservedly passed in
I silence while Elizabeth's has too often been praised. It is
superfluous to repeat Ascham's stale anecdote of her love
for the classics —
"her sweet tongue could speak distinctively Greek, Latin,
Tuscan, Spanish, French and Dutch."
" Mirror for Magistrates," III, 91S.
Both English and French poets like Ronsard, d' Aubignt
and Du Bartas with monotonous eulogy, extolled her love
of letters, while Bacon, wriring after her death, when the
courtier's art had ceased, remarked that to the last year
of her life she was accustomed to appoint set hours for
her study.
Beyond the influence exercised by their own per-
sonality, the ideas of the age emphasized the part played .
t: Go Ogle
THE TRAINING FOR AUTHORITY 49
by princes in the commonwealth. Educators and polid-
cal thinkers discussed their training, and the sphere of
their activities in the state. Such theories even when
not consciously studied by those on the throne, illustrate
the ideal then entertained of royal duties. The prince's
example was upheld as a pattern to his people and the
power of royalty to do good became a lasting monument
of fame. The throne was to radiate encouragement to
learning and virtue. Treatises written to expound such
views * laid a theoretical basis to the obligations of power.
Thomas More dwelt on the duties of royalty* and Lati-
mer declared with Puritan fervour that no one had
greater labour than a prince.*
Left to itself the English mind tends to reduce ideas
to their practical expression. The Continental vision
is more abstract. Out of Italy, France and Spain, came
theories of royal duties derived mainly from classical
sources where moralists extolled the princes' power for
good. The noblest of Roman Emperors served as a model
whosepreceptsof virtue were intended to inspire contem-
porary rulers." Tliis expedient was popular, but there is
no record of its practical effect. Save with a realist like
Macchiavelli, the writers of the Renaissance took keen de-
light in theorizing even when they saw the wide breach
between practice and ideas. A moral effigy taking little
account of life became shaped into an ideal ethical image. .
It was the accompaniment in theory to the exaltation of y
the royal power.
Not the least ability of the Tudors lay in the talent •
they displayed in surrounding themselves with compe- |
tent advisors. The method for selecting these so far as
it was not accidental, remains largely obscure. The
phenomenal rise of men like Wolsey and Cromwell is as
ill-accounted for, by any ordinary gradation of service,
beyond the ability to please the prince, as is their sud- ,
den fall. Where the avenues of approach were still unde-
termined transitions became abrupt. The public services
lyGOOgIC
so TUDOR IDEALS
were very irregular; except with municipal life, the ele-
ments of the modern state remained rudimentary through-
out the Middle Ages. Until the end of the Fifteenth Cen-
tury the higher officials had been mainly selected from
the clergy, for few laymen possessed the necessary educa-
tion. The Sixteenth Century was to be the bridge which
spanned the medieval with the modern world. The sec-
ularization of the state was among its most important
achievements.
In a transition period like the Renaissance which pre-
sents phases of decay alongside of others of growth, a fresh
structure had to be built, less by the establishment of
new services than by the modification and expansion of
those existing. The force which brought this about did
not deliberately set out to create a class of civil servants,
but utilizing the material at hand, took those it found
within reach, whose training bore the usual classical stamp
of the age. Men in public life, then as now, were occa-
sionally graced with adornments of cultivation. Yet there
is a disposition to exaggerate the importance of such ele-
ments which formed part of their instruction. The real
qualities which made for the highest success, hardly dif-
fered from those of any other era except that for the first
time in England their bearers stand out in the full light of
a personality where one can discern the beginnings of
modern man.
The victory of Renaissance culture however, became
easier when a variety of reasons made its mastery useful to
success in life. The expansion of the state then in proc-
ess, looked to the ancient world for its models, and found
its best servants in those most familiar with its records.
Education bears a direct relation to life and the old schol-
asticism had been signally deficient as a preparation for
this. Something more modem was required and found in
the revelation of antiquity. The rise of the new class of
officials was hastened by the diffusion of education among
laymen who, aloof from church and feudal connections.
lyGOOgIC
THE TRAINING FOR AUTHORITY 51
were solely devoted to the task of administration in the
crown service.
The movement toward secularization was gradual and
probably in its beginning unconscious. It was attended
by curious circumstances. So long as churchmen had been
employed in the state, the ecclesiastical hierarchy which
gave them their position was conducive to its members
occupying without anomaly high civil posts. Once lay-
men were substituted for clerics, the lack of fixed tradition
brought about, as is often the case in new countries, the
most incongruous choices. John Stile the English envoy
at the Spanish court in the early years of the century was
probably only a scribe and certainly without rank or ed-
ucation.' An Italian merchant named Spinelli represented
England in Flanders. Nor were conditions in other
countries very different. Puebla, the Spanish representa-
tive at the court of Henry VII, lived in the house of a
mason who harbored loose women and dined daily in
their company.'
Such anomalies adjusted themselves and the increased
importance of international relations soon brought about
its own remedy. Though learning aroused the derision of
the unlettered it was prized in high quarters. Sir Thomas
EJyot probably owed his position as ambassador to his
fame as a writer. Henry VIII had sincere respect for let-
ters and among his envoys Sir Thomas Wyatt deserves to
rank with Navagero, Garcilaso della Vega, and the other
poet diplomatists of the Renaissance. Before the modern
organization of a diplomatic hierarchy had been created,
and at a time when men of education still were rare, those
in whom such qualities stood out, received more readily
preferment from the Crown. To this degree the somewhat
irr^ular condirions prevmling in the administration
proved favourable to letters.
With the principles of statecraft which guided the
Tudors, advancement became easier to men of instruction.
A French ambassador paying tribute to the excellence
lyGOOgIC
m
TUDOR IDEALS
of British diplomacy wrote that there was never a rumour
in any quarter of the world which they were not the
first to hear.'" Alluding perhaps to Cromwell's extensive
use of spies he mentioned the agents whose duty it
was to transmit news about the designs of princes. The
reports of the Venetian Ambassadors are deservedly fa-
mous but many of those written by English envoys were
no whit inferior.
Later, Queen Elizabeth, conservative when circum-
stances permitted, chose decorative incumbents for cere-
monial occasions but men of ability for the important
missions, whom she surrounded with staffs of l^al and
commercial specialists as well as secretaries of likely dispo<
sition to be trained in diplomatic business."
IThe upheaval which marked the end of the Middle
Ages was attended by a growing freedom in the choice
of those living in the surroundings of the prince, Dif-
ferent causes often produce unexpected effects and the
conditions created by the crown instead of solely facili-
(tatlng the task of centralized government also favoured
the growth of the middle classes. Already Perkin Warbeck
had denounced the "Caitiffs and villains of simple birth"
around the first Tudor. Henry VII, like Louis XI whom
he copied, employed men of the humblest origin for the
highest offices doubtless finding these better educated
and more pliable. Motives of policy made him reluctant
to select those of exalted birth.
Henry VIII acted similarly though such choices were
often bitterly resented. The dispar^ement of Wolsey
was based on his small origin, William Roy wrote,
"Och there is neither duke nor baron
Be they never of so great power
But they are entertained to crouch
Before this butcherly flouch,"'*
The Pilgrimage of Grace with Cromwell in mind de-
manded that villain blood be removed from the Pnvy
lyGOOgIC J
THE TRAINING FOR AUTHORITY 53
Gnincil. The Duke of Buckingham complained that
the king was ready to give fees, office and rewards to
boys rather than to noblemen, and Surrey at his trial
declared it to be the royal intention to get rid of all
those of ancient lineage.
With the decay of feudalism and the diffusion ofl
education, the barriers between the classes had to a I
certain extent been let down. The new learning was
^open to all though it was not to be the men of ancient
Ir lineage who were most to benefit by it. An established, .
position is rarely conducive to favouring the initial
'^ energy necessary to profit from novel conditions. Thij,,
was one of the chief reasons which encouraged the influx
of the "novi homines," who found their path made
easier because so few others possessed the necessary
attainments. Already Henry VII's much hated minister
Dudley had urged the nobility to pay more attention
to the education of their sons. In his opinion these
were the worst brought up of any nation, with the re-
sult that "the children of poor men and mean folks
are promoted to the promotion and authority that the
children of noble blood should have if they were meet
therefor."'* A knowledge of hawking, hunting and
heraldry had too long been regarded as the sole essen-
tials in a gentleman's education. So late as the reign of
Henry VIII, a peer of the realm could say that it was
enough for a nobleman's sons to wind their horn and
carry their hawk and leave study and learning to the
children of mean men. To whom Richard Pace replied in
famous words that it was due to such ideas that mean men's
sons managed aifairs of state. Latimer deplored the
absence of education on the part of the upper classes
which left them unprepared to fill high offices.'* Many
then remarked that the nobles had only themselves to
blame if men of humble origin brought up in a more rigid
discipline succeeded better in after life.
A real improvement in the education of the upper classes
lyGOOgIC
s/
54 TUDOR IDEALS
was, however, taking place and from the middle of the
century, a more serious effort was made to train these for
the service of the state. TTie education of the castle, almost
the last survival of the old chivalry, was giving way to a
new idea, grounded in the University and enlarged by
foreign travel. State service furnished the goal in view and
youth was to be prepared to act as the prince's counsellor,
to be wise and eloquent of speech and learned in tongues
and travel." For the first time learning had become a
(primary condition to advancement. A contemporary
opinion of what a gentleman's bringing up should consist
of is contained in the elder Sidney's advice to his son to
study assiduously, be careful of his tongue, to exercise his
body, to drink seldom yet enough not to betray effects."
The younger Sidney in a famous letter to his brother ex-
pressed a more developed ideal. He advised him to cul-
tivate a good colloquial knowledge of Latin. He was to
study mathematics and history, practice oratory and
poetry "for ornament" and music for persona! solace.
Lastly he was to cultivate horsemanship and "daily for an
hour or two, sword and dagger."
I Halfway between the learning of the scholar, and the
practice in sport and arms of the knight, was the new
Renaissance idea of a gentleman's education. Borrowed
largely from Italian and French writers though also from
Spanish and even Polish " a body of opinion grew up for
the training of those who aimed to fit themselves to be of
service to their country. They were advised to study laws
and treaties, civil policy and moral science. So far as
books could supplement deficiencies, theoretical sugges-
tions were plentiful. Bacon attributed the lack of good
counsellors as being due to the absence of a suitable
cellmate education where those who so desired, could fit
themselves by a study of history, modern languages and
government to enter the state service.
Bacon was over inclined to seek academic remedies for
the deficiencies he saw around him. With the growing
lyGOOgIC
THE TRAINING FOR AUTHORITY $$
tendency to find honour in state employment, the means
of preparation were inadequate. Learned books could
expatiate on the qualities needed but were less suggestive
as to how such talents could be acquired. For the rich,
travel became the approved method, and even those of
small means like Sidney went from country to country in
search of experience. The system was at best haphazard.
It was often remedied by native talent but was not always
conducive to bringing the best to the fore while it could
not establish even a modern standard of mediocrity.
In the struggle for advancement other methods were
resorted to. With the shrewd observation of experience
Lord Burleigh advised his son in the search for success, to
attach his fortune to those of some great man as a friend
and even to give him some "great gratuity otherwise in
this ambitious age thou shall remain like a hop without
a pole line in obscurity."
Bacon in the apology of his conduct toward Elssex,
freely admitted that he had begun his career by attaching
himself to his fortunes and accepted from Essex the grant
of a piece of land which he later sold. He related that
he had reminded Essex of the example of Guise who had
been called the greatest usurer in France because having
turned all his estate into obligations he had left nothing
for himself while binding numbers of persons to him."
Between a discarded feudalism and an immature partyi
idea, there grew up an intermediate form of personalv
organization centring round men of prominence. Leicester
possessed such a following as did Essex. In the atmos-
phere of the Court a semi-polidcal feudalism arose which
was not without at times giving umbrage to the crown.
y
lyGOOgIC
VII. OFFICE AND CORRUPTION
Little is known of the first Tudor ministers beyond the
fact of their unpopularity. Save for a few churchmen,
they were men mostly of small origin without other posi-
tion than came to them as dependents of the crown. In
spite of the dislike they encountered, no such scandal
disgraces them as had allowed the receipts of Edward IV's
chief officials to be displayed in the auditing bureaus of
Paris.' The administrative talent of the crown went to
create a more efficient machinery of office than had before
been known in England. In the national renovation then
proceeding, an entire structure was built up. The royal
policy in the assertion of its new powers aimed to provide a
directing force able to harness the different elements of
national strength and bring compactness to what had so
long been loose jointed. New communities possess their
own standards and in many respects England was a new
community. As in all young countries where rapidly
evolving conditions produce vast changes, the absence of
an established order caused most men to seek primarily
their own selfish benefit without being held in leash by
the discipline of a tradition handed down with its accumu-
lated prestige.
The remarkable transformation of the public services
which then took place followed, in a sense, the evolution of
royalty itself. The first Tudor 's ministers imitating their
master remained as inconspicuous as circumstances per-
mitted. Public office still presented grave danger and few
emoluments with little halo falling on its incumbents.
Except for those whose duties brought them into contact
with the prince, it was regarded more as a burden than
otherwise and few there were bold enough to seek its
precarious distinction without ulterior purpose. Sir
lyGOOgIC
OFFICE AND CORRUPTION S7
Thomas More's reluctance to accept office is well known
and there was hardly an ambassador who did not beg to
be recalled. The government services were still in tool
chaotic a condition to make them desirable. There ex-
isted few traditions of integrity or even of devotion to
duty. When Wolsey almost alone remained at his post
during the alarm caused by the sweating sickness, the fact
was regarded as noteworthy. Not till much later was -
resignation of office known. Like in Eastern lands, to
fall was to be disgraced, for it meant the loss of the prince's
favour and often of life as well. Impeachment was certain
to follow dismissal. Wolsey deprived of office signed an
indenture acknowledging his offi:nces and praying the
king as partial atonement to take over all his temporal
possessions.* When Paget, who had opposed Mary's
Spanish marriage, realized that it would take place, he
asked for leave of absence but desisted when he saw that
to persevere in this course exposed him to the risk of losing
life, honor, and property.
Under the theory of the crown then prevailing, therei
was no room for anyone entertaining different opinionsJ
To acknowledge these was the brand of the traitor and thel
penalties which ensued were only the legal punishments!
for the offence. Not until Elizabeth's stable rule, mod-
ern conditions began to be approximated which relieved
officers of the crown from such feelings of personal danger.
Burleigh asked consent to resign, as a protest against the
queen's continued displeasure toward Leicester for his
policy in the Low Countries,* and it was only after this
threat, that he found her more amenable to reason.
Where government was personal the glamour of royalty
extended over its favourites. The shadow of princely power
devolved on whoever reigned in his name. Wolsey 's
arrogance was proverbial in the heyday of his favour.
Foreign envoys remained amazed at his speaking in the
first person' of what England would do, and at the sight
of great peers like the Dukes of Suffolk and Buckingham,
lyGOOgIC
58 TUE)OR IDEALS
performing meiiial services for him when he sat down to
dinner with the royal party.*
(With less magnificent tastes than the Cardinal, Thomas
Cromwell was hardly less insolent in power. In a well-
known passage of his "Survey" Stow relates how Cromwell
wishing to enlaige the garden of a new house he had built
in Throgmorton Street, merely ordered the surveyors to
take a piece of land from his father's garden as well as from
others and whoever had the temerity to resist lost his case.
"This much of mine own knowledge have I thought good
to note that the sudden rising of some men causeth them
to forget themselves."*
One cannot regard corruption as incidental to any
system or age, but it would seem as if increased oppor-
tunities meant an increase of evil. The enlarged horizon
I" of the Sixteenth Century was not productive to improve-
ment in official honesty. Francis I of France expressed the
prevalent opinion, when answering an appeal made to
refrain from bribery, that the only means to attain an
object was by force or corruption. New avenues were
travelled in the old way and the generous ideals entertained
by visionaries were replaced by hard facts. Wolsey could
receive pensions and gifts and himself confer bribes with-
out finding it amiss. The system was well-nigh universal
which made the English ambassadors at the Emperor's
court suggest the use of money to influence his council.
Even Thomas More is said to have been in receipt of a
pension from the King of France." The noblest mind of the
I age praised the Utopian practice of bribing enemies in
preference to making war, while Utopian diplomacy dis-
covered a practical use for gold in corruption.
The judiciary was often a servile bureaucracy where
any high standard of integrity was the exception and a
chancellor like Lord Rich, perjured himself in order to
meet the royal wishes. Standards of professional honour
( were unformed. Doubtless the transformation of Eng-
land, brought an intense strain on the courts. Novel
lyGOOgIC
OFFICE AND CORRUPTION 59
circumstances and the lack of any established standard |
caused far greater laxity of conduct. The gradual amel-
ioration which took place proves how every age contains
the seeds of its own betterment, and as it gains stability
sheds its more disreputable practices. Even then" some
kept honest. Roper found it worthy of note that his
father-in-law More should have purchased the little land
he possessed before he became Lord Chancellor; and when
a litigant in his court sent him a gold cup as a New Year's
gift he accepted this but returned one of greater value.^
Yet bribery in the law was notorious and shocked the
French Ambassador MariUac who remarked that Sir
Thomas Audely, then appointed Chancellor, enjoyed the
reputation of bang a good seller of justice.'
To traverse the diflferent branches of activity is to find in
each the same stain." A "scandalous venality" existed in
many offices. An Archbishop could divert money set
aside for educational purposes to enrich himself" A Lord
High Admiral could connive at piracy." When Philip's
marriage arrangements with Mary were being made, one
of the most important points discussed was the bribery of
members of the English royal council and Egmont wrote
to his master that more could be done with money in
England than anywhere else in the world. Later Leicester
was accused of taking commissions on all public business
which passed through his hands," and officers of the
queen's council were bribed to connive at jobbery in the
customs.
Yet Hatton, in spite of pressure brought to bear on him,
acted as Chancellor in an honourable way, and suspended
his own Secretary, Samuel Cox, for taking bribes to obtain
his master's influence with the queen. Sir Henry Sidney
was among the few absolutely incorruptible officials.
Cecil too was far more honest than the rest and such
suspicions as existed about him" were without foundation.
When royalty took bribes, it is significant that Mary
Stuart could be praised for not selling to the highest bidder
lyGOOgIC
6o TUDOR IDEALS
the great offices of state.'* Elizabeth was less Scrupulous.
Sir John Harrington desirous to obtain back land forfeited
by an ancestor, offered the queen five hundred pounds and
a pretty jewel," while Leicester in disgrace was advised by
his friends at court to send her a valuable gift."
The difference in the degree of corruption in different
ages, is less one of human nature than of the effect of dis-
cipline. The evolution of Tudor England toward modern-
ity was too rapid to shape and coordinate governmental
machinery in all its points of contact with the opportuni-
ties for wealth. Where the reserve of inherited riches was
still in its infancy, where salaries were inadequate, and the
demand for display excessive, it is not surprising that in a
crude and newly developed administration, without se-
curity of tenure or pride of tradition, many officials should
have succumbed to the temptation of a practice still un-
r^ulated, in order to advance their personal interests.
Camden alludes regretfully to the frequent squandering
of public funds by those who preferred their private to the
public good," This was only to be expected, nor was the
line of demarcation between honest and corrupt usage so
sharp as it may seem to-day. In Scotland for instance, in
the Sixteenth Century the receipt of pensions from the
British Court was so general a practice, that deducdons of
dishonesty would be unfair. '^ Rigorous conclusions are
hard to draw. The fortune of Gresham acquired by what
now seems usury, and the retention of illicit benefits
through exchange was regarded as perfectly legitimate by
those around him. It required an age of greater stability
but less enterprise, to establish a more exacting code.
The explanation of corruption may best be found in
the rapid extension of life. Constructive forces were in con-
tact with a disintegrating structure and the relations be-
tween the two were to shape conditions with r^ard to
which no body of opinion had yet been formed. Men
had a vague idea that much was wrong, without being
able amid the moral chaos which prevailed, to define
lyGOOgIC
OFFICE AND CORRUPTION 6i
thdr impressions. The range of the crown's activity had
so far exceeded any ordinary sphere of control, that a
void grew up where the practices of official Hfe outstripped
the primidve standards previously known. Instinctively
those who could, tried to turn such new situations to their
advantage. In the long run they did so to the benefit of
the community though often with a brutal selfishness.
The most glaring instance of corruption, through the
spoliation of Church property, put an end less to monas-
tic abuses many of which had been wantonly exaggerated,
than it broke up the stagnant pools of conservatism, whose
vast wealth lay intrenched throughout the land. The
success of the great reforms of the age would have been
more precarious if the king had not enlisted in his meas- .
ures the greed of the most energetic elements in the
nation, hungry for wealth and little mindful of its source.
How litde can be judged by such a scandalous instance
as the Duke of Buckingham's condemnation when the
Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk who had been among the
judges that sentenced him, shared in the distribution of
his vast estates."
In the reshuffling of classes and conditions which then
took place, it was natural that the more forceful elements
should come to the front. The freedom of restraint and*
the laxity of standards, provided the conditions favour-l
ing their assertion. So far as permanent consequences
ensued, the corruption attending the governmental services
was only a petty aspect in the far wider scope open to those
who dared to achieve success irrespective of means. It
was the shadow cast on the action of masterful characters.
The unscrupulousncss of the age, contributed to the suc-
cessful assertion of those whose energies would with diffi-
culty have been restrained within conventional limitations.
To this extent, corruption in a period of rapid expansion
has not the same degrading influence it exercises in more
stationary times. Instead of acting as a permanent stigma, I
it marks the evil accompanying an excess of individual 1
lyGOOgIC
62 TUDOR IDEALS
\ opportunity running ahead of a collective interest still un-
' able to assert itself. Even in that age, glimpses of higher
perceptions appear; amid the conditions favouring sel6sh
I greed a finer spirit like Wyatt could write with disgust:
"I cannot wrest the law to fill the coffer with innocent
blood to feed myself fat.""
From time to time shone brighter lights. When in one
of his sermons Latimer expressed the modern idea of the
state paying liberal salaries to the right men and boldly
denounced before the king the sale of public offices, several '
officials restored their defalcations and he was able to re-
turn nearly four hundred pounds to the crown on condition
of keeping secret the names of the penitents.'^ There
are other instances of a growing delicacy of feeling in such
I matters. Philip Sidney declined to allow his own needs
to be relieved at the expense of others in the proposed for-
feiture of catholic estates.*' Amid the new conditions of
stability a finer spirit of integrity arose and when after
his voyage around the world Drake offered some of his
booty to men of prominence at court, certain of these
refused on the ground of it having been obtained by
piracy.**
lyGOOgIC
VIII. POLITICAL MORALITY
History offers no more delicate problem than to pass
judgment on a nation's morals. Few periods havei
prated more about ethical considerations in public af-f
fairs, or acted less on them than the Sixteenth Century.1
In that meeting-ground of opposite tendencies, the sud-
denness of new conditions rising from amid the old,
and the unexpectedness of its problems, created a series
of questions which those in authority were often ill-
prepared to cope with. The result became visible in
intense reactions which at times fallowed periods of Hb-
eral tolerance. As soon as moderation no longer seemed
opportune, each side harked back to traditions of vio-
lence inherited from earlier days, and applied these as
instruments of statecraft to the practical conduct of
affairs. This may help to explain the paradox of an age
which presents such contradictory sides of cultivation
and savagery. The problems which arose were novel,
thrust on the attention of those in authority by unfore-
seen circumstances as often as by design. But the at-
tempts to solve them were the result of a more ancient
practice which looked to force when applied to the mass,
and to violence where the individual was concerned.
The Fifteenth Century in England had been stained
by deeds as dark as any perpetrated in Italy. The mur-
der of Henry VI, or of the princes in the Tower, were
not isolated blood spots but crimes comparable to those
of a Malatesta, or a Borgia. Even Louis XI, hardened
in his methods, was so shocked by the latter that he re-
fused to reply to Richard Ill's letter soliciting his friend-
ship much to the disappointment of a prince who had
hoped to receive from the French king the same pension
as his predecessor.* The motive for political crime is
lyGOOgIC
64 TUDOR IDEALS
usually Co obtain greater security for the prince. So
long as national strength or opinion had not yet been
aroused, the instruments of statecraft were personal
and rulers were obliged to rely on their skill or unscru-
pulousness, in the conduct of affairs, rather than on
the prestige of an administration or the discipline of
, a people. The goal of action was their own safety
V on the throne and the extension of their power, but
the means by which this was achieved came through
intrigue and violence, rather than from straightfor-
ward policy. It was hardly affected by any force of
public opinion which was still rudimentary and inartic-
ulate. Where the goals of statecraft were rapidly shap-
ing themselves toward directions which have lasted to our
own day, the methods of statesmanship were the same
as have always existed in all personal government.
No Italian despot exceeded Henry VII in political
shrewdness, and like most Italians his cruelty was never
y exercised gratuitously. Murder and clemency alternately
served the purpose of his statecraft, but unlike his son
he did not resort unnecessarily to the scaffold and reserved
his victims for real or supposed necessity. Examples of
his cunning were alleged in his encouraging the rumour that
the Duke of York was alive to make it appear that he
did not reign in his wife's right, or in having his spies
accused openly as his enemies at St. Paul's to divert sus-
picion from them. His methods were personal and his
political morality was that of the age, treacherous and
ruthless on occasion though never needlessly abusive of
force.
To those who seek to understand the spirit of that time,
^ few things are more confusing than the seeming respect
given to legal form with the gross breaches of justice.
The most amazing contradictions stand out side by
side. In order to give legal sanction to his attainders for
treason Henry VII's reign was supposed to have begun on
August 2ist, I485, so that all who had borne arms against
lyGOOgIC
POLITICAL MORALITY 65
him at Bosworth offended against the King's Majesty
and as such were guilty of high treason. Yet when
Perkin Warbeck failed in his attempt to seize the crown,
the defence advanced was, that as a foreigner, he had not
been guilty of treason to his lord, and mild captivity
was reserved for him until later plots made his execu-
tion necessary. 1
Such contradictions came from the successful oppor-'
tunism of Tudor policy. Where the current of an age flows
swiftly, those adrift of it guide their bark by instinct and
not by a fixed chart. Henry VII could ruthlessly suppress
one insurrection and act toward the leaders of another with
the greatest magnanimity. The law In his hands became I
an instrument of policy more than of justice. Like every
other function of government it had to bend itself to the
royal will. Even this subservience marked an enormous
advance. After the anarchy of the Fifteenth Century
when the intimidation of judges and juries had been com-
mon occurrences and men appeared in court backed by
their armed retainers, the new power of the crown by re-
stricting the law's perversion to a single will, marked an
undoubted advance.
In their attitude toward justice as in their attitude
toward every form of authority the Tudors became the
gateway for modern England and made their tyranny a
step toward future freedom. Tudor policy used the law)
as a practical means of levelling their subjects to equality.]
Obvious as this now seems, its beginnings were difficult
to enforce. When in 1498 the Earl of Sheffield had killed
a man he felt his honour insulted because although a peer
and pardoned by the king for this oflence he had been
indicted before a common court of justice.
Under Henry VIII the case of Lord Dacres executed for
a petty poaching fray is notorious. The king insisted on
his execution although pardoning some of his humbler
companions. It is among the paradoxes of history that
the greatest results are often unconsciously prepared.
lyGOOgIC
66 TUDOR IDEALS
The policy of the crown which aimed to bring order to
the different processes of justice handed down from the
Middle Ages, to subject these to its own control and apply
them equally to all, irrespective of birth or station, in re-
ality prepared the way for what would to-day be known
as a democratic reform which was carried out by the great-
est tyrant of his time.
Even by the lights of his century Henry VIII was cruel.
The levelling tendencies of the age first became apparent
in the equality of high and low before the executioner's axe.
The first prince of the Renaissance in England utilized
without coiT]punction the vast instruments of power in his
hands. The system of espionage which since the time of
Edward IV had been known in England, was a current
accompaniment of Tudor government. When the houses
of the great sheltered retinues of retainers, spies were
nearly always to be found among these. The evidence
for the execution of Lord Exeter was obtained from his
servants.
\ The unscrupulousness of the king's rule was in nothing
\ more noticeable than in his readiness to send the mighty,
I like the Duke of Buckingham, to the block for no greater
I crime than their royal descent. This was only one side of
a political morality which had made him b^n hts reign
by unjustly condemning his father's unpopular ministers
to the scaffold and later beheading the Earl of Suffolk,
whose life he had pledged himself to spare.
\ Underneath such actions, was ingrained the belief tn
himself as above the law and independent of the canons
of right and wrong. The prince, embodying the state,
could do as he liked and his first duty was to safeguard
his own security and authority by every means in his
power. The propriety of his actions never disturbed a
monarch who saw no relation between his own practice
and the duty owed his subjects.
I Medieval violence merely changed its form. Instead of
I being vengeance wreaked by private means, the king made
lyGOOgIC
POLITICAL MORALITY 67
the strong hand of the state, the instrument of his com-
mand and in his matrimonial experiences raised personal
whims to the level of national policies. In this sense, po-
litical morality acquired a far more sinister meaning than
ever before. The elevation of royal authority had given
it a power never previously possessed. The new idea of
the throne, new forces in the state, and the weakened in-
fluence of former restraints, brought to the front a theory
of statecraft which looked only to the means to bring about
whatever end was desired by the crown. Here and there
a few scruples lingered. Henry showed a curious reject
for Katherine of Aragon's life though the suspicion ofpoi-
son was not entirely absent from her death. But an affair
which then touched the King so nearly as his desire for
riddance of Anne Boleyn, was treated with an absence of
decency. Under torture and with promise of pardon, a
confession was wrung from the wretched Mark Smeaton,
who was subsequendy executed to prevent his retracting,
while the queen expiated on the scaffold the crime of hav-
ing borne him a daughter.
Such misdeeds were the reactions of a swollen power uni
checked by fear of censure, in an age which despite its re|
finements remained brutal and cruel. Yet it is not easy
to generalize, for examples of magnanimous moderation
might be cited almost in the same breath. Protector
Somerset's humanity stood him in ill stead. Few char-
acters in history have been more harshly treated than
Mary, but to her credit, she spared the life of her sister,
Elizabeth, when the latter was implicated in Wyatt's
rebellion, and refrained from the alternative plan of send-
ing her out of England to be married to a foreigner.
Every age offers examples of contrary tendencies, and it
is unfair to single out only certain ones to the exclusion of
others. The so-called spirit of a period arises through some
ideas being brought into sharper relief and not kept down
by moderating influences. During the Sixteenth Century
the march of action had outstripped that of criticism. The
lyGOOgIC
68 TUDOR IDEALS
exercise of forceful energy was not restrained by stabilizing
tendencies which make for moderation. The direction
given to political action placed itself astride of popular
currents far more than is realized. The network of intrigue
was the inevitable result of a personal government which
in the absence of definite party ideas or of an organized
opinion, utilized religious prejudices for its own purposes or
invoked spiritual motives alien to its own beliefs. So true
was this, that even the lukewarm had in their own interest
to conduct ruthlessly those movements of which they
assumed the head. One so religiously tolerant as Eliza-
beth, who was regarded as a freethinker by those who
knew her best, was yet forced by circumstance to burn
Catholics at the stake. On the continent the leader of the
Protestant cause, William of Orange, was thought to be
an agnostic while the Valois, who perpetrated St. Bar-
tholomew, were more superstitious than Papist.
Violence and political immorality passed into the cur-
rent practice of life from two sides. Those who were them-
selves deeply stirred by the great forces of the age and
solely intent on their success, were as careless in their
choice of method as men have always been in all great
periods. Others who were personally indifferent, took their
cue from the atmosphere around them and selected instru-
ments of action solely from thepoint of view of expediency.
Every age transmits to the next the shell of its own form
more often than the substance. While the pious jargon
handed down from the Middle Ages to envelope declara-
tions of action was still preserved, new meanings were
read into this. With fine irony, Thomas More describing
the various sanctimonious guises intended to secure
greater stability for political alliances, remarked that loop-
holes could always be found. Such phraseology was
pardy a convention, partly a blind to disguise the real
ruthlessness of policy. Morality could be utilized either
to conceal policies or to confound enemies.
Nothing was more conscientious than Elizabeth's public
lyGOOgIC
POLITICAL MORALITY 69
utterances. When she rebuked Leicester for accepting
the proffered sovereign powers over the Netherlands, the
nominal ground was because, to have acquiesced therein
after protesting the contrary, would have made her
" infamous to all princes."* Theoretically, moral consid-1
erations were of supreme importance, and writers came|
forward in defence of lofty ideals. The Frenchman, La
Primaudaye, well known in England, declared that the
prince's faith must be kept inviolate as no crime was
worse than perjury.' The French ambassador, Cognet,
upheld plain dealing and the highest standard of veracity,
reproving the Italians who defended villainy in the name
of prudence.* The maligned Italians were no worse than
others, though the qualities which made them shtne at
every court were rarely those of character.
Peele could declare ' If kings do dally with holy oaths,
the heavens will right the wrongs that they sustain.' * But
such expressions were confined to literature. Rhetorical
tradition and classical and religious inheritance prated
about abstract virtue doubtless in good faith and inten-
tion. As a positive factor in action, morality was well-nigh^
negligible. Its main importance came as a sop to a yet
unformed public opinion, and Bacon could quote approv-
ingly Guicciardini's account of the King of Spain, who ^
"did always mask and veil his appetites with a demon-
stration of a devout and holy intention."
There was little to choose in the ethics of any nation.
All found it necessary to profess a lofty semblance of vir-
tue and ail resorted to whatever means, fair or foul, seemed
most likely to conduce to the success of their policy. For-
gery, torture and assassination were the current methods
of the age. This discrepancy between the means and the
ideal was so glaring as to astonish. If the scope for
good and bad alike had increased it seemed as if only evil
had been chosen. r
Assassination passed into public morals. Even the /
Utopians in wartime posted offers of reward to whoever i
lyGoogtc
y
70 TUDOR IDEALS
should kill their enemies' prince,* justifying this because
: by the death of a few offenders the lives of many inno-
' cents on both sides would be preserved. When in "The
Tempest " Antonio suggests to Sebastian to kill his brother
in his sleep and reign in his stead the idea was not foreign
to the imagination of the age.
England was saved from the worst practices of politi-
cal murder, because the power of the crown was strong
enough to enforce its purposes by legal means. But the
political philosophy of the Renaissance, both Catholic
and Protestant, taking its example from antiquity, admit-
ted the legitimacy of assassination. Learning was uti-
lized to find classical examples of virtuous crime and call
in the slayers of Grecian tyrants to cast their halo on
the murderers of the Renaissance.^ Henry VIII ap-
proved of the plot to murder Cardinal Beaton, and paid
the ruffians who perpetrated the crime. John Knox,
praised the murder as "a goodly deed," and the poet
Lyndsay, prompt enough to see evil everywhere, found
only good therein and likens the assassins to Judith slay-
ing Holofernes.^ Humanists like Buchanan, heads of Col-
leges like Lawrence Humphrey,* bishops like Poynet,
on patriotic grounds expounded the virtues of tyranni-
cide.
The belief was then widely prevalent that the Catho-
lic powers would reward anyone who assassinated Queen
Elizabeth. She herself often referred to this danger,
and remarked to one French ambassador that the King
of Spain had despatched no less than fifteen emissaries
to kill her who had so confessed. It is certain that Philip
and Elizabeth each supporting a great cause resorted to
the most criminal means against each other. To blacken
her opponents, the queen not impossibly made a victim
out of Dr. Lopez and may well have had an innocent
man wronged to further her policy. English govern-
mental agents like Peter Boles and Thomas Philips foiled
incriminating passages in the letters of their enemies,"*
lyGOOgIC
POLITICAL MORALITY 71
and the incident of the Catholic John Story, kidnapped
by the queen's agents in the Low Countries and brought
to England where he was executed, disposes one to accept
the truth of many discreditable narratives. In Ireland
the English administration coined base money ostensibly
to prevent the rebels from providing for their wants from
abroad," and the first Lord Essex, imitating Ctesar Bor-
gia, invited the O'Nalls to a banquet at Belfast which
was followed by a general massacre.
The gulf of hatred separating the different camps in
Europe acted as an incentive to criminal solutions. Con-
temporaries found in this no reason for astonishment.
When Elizabeth was accused of having planned the
murder of Parma in the Low Countries, she pricked
the slander on the ground of her not having any personal
grievance against a chivalrous enemy and because he
was in no way indispensable to the prosecution of the
war.** But she expressed no indignation at such a
charge.
The extension taken by English life in the latter part
of the Sixteenth Century, tended to accentuate these
evils. The sharpness of all crises brings to the fore
an employment of means which corresponds to the
reality of desire stripped of decorous formulas or re-
straints. Political immorality less personal than under
Henry VIII was becoming more national in the sense
of extending far beyond the court. New horizons were
being opened toward unfamiliar fields. The widening cir-
cle projected around England embraced subjects so
slightly connected as the break with Rome, the revolt
in Flanders, and the English buccaneers in the West
Indies, whose point of contact came in their common
enmity with Spain. The queen occupying a throne
which in her early years was sustained as much by du-
plicity as by force, and almost to the end of her reign,
threatened by grave dangers, responded to these with
the use of the weapons of her time. It is a test of states-
lyGOOglC
72 TUDOR IDEALS
manship in every age to be in touch with the life around
it both good and bad and to utilize its force to attain
the goal in view. False, hypocritical, and ruthless,
as Elizabeth's practices were, they were those of the age,
neither better nor worse.
The Massacre of St. Bartholomew oifers a touch-
stone of sixteenth century statecraft in England as well
as in France, revolting even to that time. The French
ambassador Du Ferrier wrote Catherine de Medici of
how profoundly it had shocked Catholic opinion in
Europe. In the reign of terror which ensued in France,
where a canon of Notre Dame like Roulart who had
protested against if, was murdered in prison, men in fear
of their lives praised the massacre though "privately,
few are found that do not utterly detest it."'* Some
explanation was thought necessary in its defence and
Charles IX sending for Walsingham, told him it was
due to the danger in which the royal family had suddenly
found themselves owing to Coligny's alleged conspiracy,
the proofs of which would shordy be published before
the world." The French ambassador in London was
at the same time instructed to explain the massacre to
the queen. He did so, professing himself "ashamed to
be counted a Frenchman" yet seeking to disculpate the
king who had been distracted by the danger in which he
found himself.
Elizabeth could with difficulty have entertained any il-
lusions as to the crime. From Paris Walsingham wrote in
disgust that Coligny was never in more apparent favour
than just before St. Bartholomew and it seemed less dan-
gerous to live with the Valois as enemies than as friends."
"There is here neither regard had to either word, wridng
or edict be it never so solemnly published." He was re-
volted by the cruelty which planned the later massacres
in the provinces and the hypocrisy which then protested
that they were perpetrated against the royal will. Burlragh
regarded it as the devil's work," yet admitted that die
lyGOOgIC
POLITICAL MORALITY 73
French ambassador had persuaded the queen that his
master was In no way responsible, and had even the audac-
ity to suggest that she should condole with the king for
" this miserable accident" rather than to condemn him."
Elizabeth only used the massacre as a further excuse
against the French marriage. With Charles IX's wish
to suppress the Protestant faith his brother could not be a
fit husband. But she neither broke off relations nor con-
demned the crime but expressed her willingness to accept
proofs of the conspiracy. Her attitude was one of the most
callous indifference. The Rouen massacre a month later,
aroused a seeming explosion of the queen's anger, but she
professed to believe the ofEcial explanation which threw
the blame on a few misguided partisans, and recommended
for protection amid these murders, the English wine mer-
chants at Bordeaux."
She even accepted to be godmother of Charles IX's
daughter and was cynical enough to use the massacres to
set the greater value on her action, declaring that his per-
secution against the Huguenots might seem incompatible
with her friendship, yet the affection she entertained for
the French king was so great as to cause her to accept his
offer. Never did political considerations prevail more
barefacedly. But the conscience of the nation, shocked
by such murders, was healthier than that of its rulers. St.
Bartholomew stamped a deep impression on the English
mind in its horror of Catholic policy.
Elizabeth's ideas of political morality were again in evi-
dence amid the circumstances attending the execution of
Mary, Queen of Scots, It may be true as her apologist
has said, that any other prince would have done the same,"
though the example of her sister Mary toward herself
had been far more magnanimous. In a contemporary
French dialogue, an Englishman defended, the execution
on the ground that in matters of state it was no evil to
remove a great evil in order to introduce a great bene-
fit." Whether the charge that Mary had conspired
lyGOOgIC
74 TUDOR IDEALS
against Elizabeth's life was true or false, whatever sym-
pathy a character so gifted, so heroic, and so unfortunate
inspires, it is certain that the policy of which she was to
find herself the victim was not dissimilar from her own
ideas. Irrespective of the question of her association in
Darnley's murder there can be little doubt that she
approved of the plan to assassinate the Prince of
Orange.
I Her execution was due to the practical view of politics
taken in the Sixteenth Century, as it was impossible for
Mary Stuart to regard herself otherwise than the rightful
claimant to the English throne she was a danger to Prot-
estant England. The necessity for her execution had
been impressed on Elizabeth by her closest advisers,"
whether rightfully or wrongly, is here not the question.
In ordering it Elizabeth showed herself more reprehensi-
ble by her hypocrisy than by her conduct. In the anony-
mous "Justification" written as a defence it was said
that she had never ordered her death but only signed the
warrant to be kept in case of need. Elizabeth in writ-
ing to James VI protested her innocence of Mary's blood,
and her son though hinting at a demand for "satisfac-
tion " found it convenient to believe her. James was far
more interested in assuring his own claim to the succession
than in saving his mother's life,** and was probably se-
cretly relieved by her death.
More revolting was Elizabeth's hypocrisy in her pun-
ishment of Secretary Davison whom she made a scapegoat
to shield herself from Catholic resentment. The latter
sentenced to imprisonment and the payment of a crush-
ing fine, entreated vainly to be restored to the queen's
favour. Though she aided him at times he never again
recovered the latter and remained an innocent victim of
her own duplicity.
Great causes have often been carried to triumphant suc-
cess by ignoble instruments. The seeds of England's great-
ness sprang from a soil infested with rank weeds. Truly
lyGOOgIC
POLITICAL MORALITY 75
could the essayist CornwaUis write that "against no life
doth the force of vice oppose herself and make so strong a
preparation as against the life of a statesman. . . . She
assaults with the weapons of power, self-love, ambition,
corruption, revenge, and fear." *•
lyGOOgIC
IX. THE IDEA OF THE STATE
Hardly more than a remote relation exists between the
ideas of thinkers and the acts of rulers, for the task of
government is not entrusted to philosophers. The neces-
sities of policy have always hewn their own course in
the most practical of schools. In England before the
I Seventeenth Century, political philosophers barely existed,
for jurists had never been haunted by the same medieval
reminders of the Roman Empire as on the continent.
The aspects of power had not much in common with
the abstract vision of statecraft, and the practice of au-
Ithority was guided solely by the requirements of circum-
stance.
Little theory stood behind the first Tudor's rule, and
' his professed wish to lead a crusade was hardly more seri-
ously intended than to associate his policy with what-
ever was venerable. How real an interest this plan
excited may be gauged by the collection taken at court
for warfare against the infidel, which realized eleven
guineas. Henry VII responded more consciously to the
example of the French State, where as a refugee he had
been impressed by the advantages of centralization.
"He would like to govern England in the French fash-
ion, but he cannot" wrote Ayala, the Spanish ambas-
sador, to Ferdinand of Aragon.' The Spaniard did not
discern that by far his greatest innovation was the suc-
cessful establishment of his own dynasty.
The purpose of political thought is always to find a
rarional basis for the state. Such ideas were often only
the dreams of students trained in Roman Law and
desiring to fashion an image of government which would
respond to this. In Italy the spirit of the Renaissance
taught men to reason as well as to act in terms of realism.
lyGOOgIC
THE IDEA OF THE STATE 77
but in England the medieval intellectual inheritance/
was not so easily thrown oiF. Even where ideas were!
modern, the form of their expression remained antiquated.!
Dudley's "Tree of Commonwealth," written to curry ^
favour with Henry VIII, offers an argument for absolute
monarchy. One who had shown himself an extreme
realist in his actions, now prated only of ethical consid-
erations under the form of medieval allegory.
Ideas conveyed by letters are usually more signifi- ,
cant as expressions of an age than as directly influencing
those in power. It would be folly to look to any consid-
erable intellectual preparation for the policy of Henry
VIII was impressed on him under the aspect of personal
advantage. Human actions respond more readily to
instinct than to reason, and the king's acquisitive tastes
had everything to gain from the novel conception of
the state. Yet without the ferment of the new ideas
preparing such condition as the one from which he was
to derive benefit, he would probably never have dared to .
venture on the course he followed. A prince of negli-
gible personality might have made English history take a
different turn. If the precise connection between in-
dividual character and contemporary ideas can never be
established, it suggests a closer study of the prevailing
theories of the state than has usually been given.
Ever since antiquity, the dream of an ideal state had
haunted the imagination of thinkers, and it was naturab
for the mind of the Renaissance, steeped in classical cul-i
ture, to concern itself with the same problems. More's\
"Utopia" is the most famous, as it is the greatest monu- ^
ment of the political ideals of that age. But its image of
the state was too remote from life. More's reasoning,
based pardy on antiquity, partly original, nor yet wholly
uninfluenced by the Middle Ages, pursued an independent
course and bore a far looser relation to the age than did
the Tudor monarchy. The prince in the Utopian mind
was to be a kind of president, elected by secret ballot for
lyGOOgIC
78 TUDOR IDEALS
life, but who could be deposed for tyranny. If he forfeited
the good will of his subjects, he was to abdicate, for
though bearing the name of king, "the majesty is lost."*
More's friend Erasmus held similar ideas when he ar-
gued in the "Christian Prince" that if men were perfect,
absolute monarchy might be desirable but as this was
unhkely, a limited one became preferable. How More in-
terpreted his responsible duties was seen when the philos-
opher made way for the Chancellor, and the broad toler-
lance he had advocated in his writing was replaced by the
'persecution of heretics.
The liberalism of the humanists was not in touch with
an age which had just created the omnipotent state and
the current was running swiftly toward an even greater
interference with the individual. Better than in "Utopia,"
</ the conscious political goal of the thronemay be understood
from a paper written by Edward VI.* Those in power
have rarely leisure or inclination to express their theory of
the state and the ideas of a boy, however precocious, are
not easily original. Perhaps because of this they are all
the more representative of their time. The young king
had been impressed by essays on statecraft, written for his
instruction by William Thomas, one of the most cultiva-
ted men of his day and the one best versed in Italian let-
I ters. The ideal before his mind was that of centralization
"one head, one governor, one law." The young prince
compared the body politic to the human body in which
every organ has its function. As the arm defends the
head, so should the gentry with their retainers be ready in
defence of their country, while merchants and husbandmen
laboured for its sustenance. The upper classes were to be
favoured as a state policy though less than in France where
the peasantry, the king remarked, was of slight value.
The cherished ideal of governmental paternalism aimed to
restrain men from amassing undue wealth. No one ele-
ment was to hurt the other, and everyone was to be kept
bound to his class and to the work he had been born to.
lyGOOgIC
(11
THE IDEA OF THE STATE 79
The weakness of such theorizing, consists in trying to
find fixed solutions for rapidly shifting problems. With all
its keen perceptions, the Sixteenth Century had not been
trained to discern the continuous evolution of forces within
the state and the hopelessness of trying to restrain these
within artificial channels. Edward VI took the medieval
view of the nation as a pyramid of which the throne was
the apex. In spite of his declared policy toward the "en-
gendering of friendship in all parts of the commonwealth "
the remedies he proposed for the prevailing unrest, in-
cluded rigid sumptuary laws, while he hurled his wrath
against those whom he thought were disturbing elements,
interfering with the established order of things. This the-
ory of absolute royal supremacy exercised for the welfare
of the people, best expressed the Tudor ideal of the state.
Ideas which departed from orthodox standards, found
few channels for eicpression, and religious controversies
were so violent as to distort the intentions of political
reasoning. There existed a school of thought by no
means identical with the opinions of those in power, but
mainly based on the study of antiquity applied to the
conditions of the state. Aristotle's "Politics" provided /
the fountain head for nearly all political philosophy. {
Its clear analysis of governmental forms, and imper-
sonal discussion of thdr relative advantages, became a
model copied in every country. The first familiarity
with the ideas of the ancient world proceeded only from
a spirit of imitation. If one excepts More, other writers
barely penetrated beyond the commonplaces of thought
on the subject, and Sir Thomas Elyot's views are far from
profound when compared with those of contemporary
Italians. He remained a scholar steeped in classical
studies but with insufficient insight to do more than
to imitate his masters. His ideas were commonplace,
his bias ethical. The conclusions he reached naturally
favoured monarchy as the form of government most
conducive to order.
lyGOOgIC
8o TUDOR IDEALS
Where political thought concerned itself with actual
problems, it aimed to analyze in the state the different
elements of authority. The modern view of Tudor
absolutism was hardly shared by contemporaries. Poli-
V tical theorists found that, in addition to the monarch-
ical principle of the crown, it partook of aristocracy
through the councils, and in so far as "the common-
alty have their voices and burgesses in Parliament it
taketh part also of democratic or popular govern-
ment. " *
Certain writers were inclined to look to the aristocracy
as the bulwarks of the state,* but the preference of the
majority went to whatever conduced to augmenting the
importance of the monarchical principle.' The crown
represented order and stability, midway between the
anarchy of the late feudal nobility and the extravagances
of an anabaptist democracy. Though the processes of
reasoning employed to exalt the throne were remote, the
theory was not unsound. The centralizing tendencies of
life and the gathering of its activities into latter national
aggregates, half consciously, half unconsciously swept all
these under the general control of the crown. A student's
analysis might still detect different elements in the
political complexion of power. Its one reality was that
of the crown and everything else merely contributed to
magnify this.
Other ideas were not of immediate consequence. They
represented little more than seed thrown into furrows,
and thoughts which, without political importance at
the time in England, were a century later to become
commonplaces. For identical reasons Protestants in
■^ France and English Catholics advocated restricting the
power of the prince. They based their contention on
an implied contract existing between prince and sub-
jects, and where the former did not derive his rights by
their consent his rule was "an unlawful and tyrannical
usurpation."'
t: Go Ogle
THE IDEA OF THE STATE 8i
In a curious dialt^ue by Thomas Starkey, an English
Catholic writer. Cardinal Pole declares that the excess of
royal authority was the worst of evils and argued for the
rule of Parliament. The ability of a single man to dis-
pense with the laws was the "gate to all tyranny." With
a dig at the Tudor theory, he deprecated the attitude of
English kings who "have judged all things pertaining to
our realm to hang only upon their will and fantasy."'
He, too, argued in favour of the election of princes, on the
ground of their heirs being rarely worthy of high authority,
while the English preference for succession by inheritance
was attributed to the fact that "we are barbarous."'
Starkey 's view was that of Catholic liberalism. He had
lived long in Italy and was impressed by the Venetian ex-
ample which hedged in the Doge's authority from all sides.
His own predilections went toward giving power to a coun-
cil composed of churchmen, laymen, and nobles, selected
by Parliament and accorded plenary powers. The king
was to act as president of such council. But, he added,
every government must be suited to its people, and it
was not its form but its spirit which made it good or
bad. When all members of the body politic worked
tt^ether for the public good, the commonwealth must
flourish.
Such ideas were not uncommon. The Polish states-
man Grimaldus Goslicius whose book, "The Counsel- ^
tor" was translated into English in 1598, explains that a
government is the result of the mental inclination and
training of its subjects and precedes Buckle by noticing
the influence of climate. He, too, was in favour of a
mixed form of government, by the king, senate, and popu-
lar consent, thus blending together "the best, the mean,
and the base people. " "*
Bishop Poynet, who deserves to rank among the
spiritual ancestors of the Commonwealth, was even
more violent in advocating means to restrict the power
of the prince as " Kings and princes be they never so
lyGOOgIC
82 TUDOR IDEALS
great are but members, and commonwealths may stand
well enough and flourish albeit there be no kings." He
denounced the Spaniards' extermination of the Caribs as
due to princes taking "all their subjects' things as their
own."" The prince in his opinion ought to be bound by
the same moral laws as the private person and should
obey the taws which he himself has made. If he robs
his subjects it is theft and should be punished as such.
If he murders them in violation of the laws, he ought
to be punished as a murderer." The obedience he is
able to exact is only for so long as he can command well
and wisely, for tyranny ought to be resisted. Radical as
were such views, he agreed with the Aristotelian maxim
that that commonwealth was best where only one man
ruled provided he be good and just.
(Absolute royal supremacy tempered by wisdom, and
directed toward the welfare of the people, came nearest
to expressing the Tudor theory of the state. Poynet, like
Starkey, was toe remote from the somewhat uncritical
body of English opinion which applauded the strong hand
when it struck impartially, high as well as low.
In Scotland the prevailing disorder tended to promote
more subversive views. It had been William Major's
opinion that as the people first made kings, so the people
could dethrone them when they misused their privileges.
A poet like William Lauder could write that between
the king and his humblest vassal, no difference eidsted
in the sight of God and if a king transgressed virtue
and oppressed his subjects, he was to be deposed from his
high place forfeiting crown and sceptre. With the spec-
tacle of anarchy before his eyes, the humanist Buchanan
was frankly indifferent to the form of government which
a people might choose. He believed that the sovereign
drew his authority from the law, but this emanated from
the people who retained their power of dealing with a king
who transgressed it. If the prince should be guilty of any
crime he was to be judged by the same law as the private
lyGOOgIC
THE IDEA OF THE STATE 83
citizen, and if he refused to submit to trial he became a
public enemy and as such might be slain.''
The feeling in Lowland Scotland went more easily to ex-
tremes than under the strong Tudor rule. Even in Eng-
land ran an undercurrent which tried to curb the pwwers
of the crown, and the ancestry of Commonwealth ideas
can be traced to the Sixteenth Century. Elizabeth, im-
perious as was her nature, wisely gave way before the new
trend of popular feeHng which was growingly impatient
with the swollen powers of the crown. During the debate
on monopolies in i6oi,when, after outlining her concep-
tion of the royal duties as being answerable to God on
Judgment Day, she yielded to the Commons and thanked
them for having saved her from error, remarking that
the State was to be governed for the benefit of those that
are committed and not of those to whom it is committed."
From her father's idea of England as a royal estate, Eliz-
abeth had advanced toward the modem view.
lyGOOgIC
X. PUBLIC OPINION
The chatter of the market-place was little respectful of
the mighty in the Middle Ages, but its power was slight,
and the scope of its opinion was hampered by the clogged
channels of difTusion.
\ Before the Sixteenth Century, English municipal life
stood in poor comparison with that of the Italian or Flem-
ish cities. The part played by Parliament was only spas-
modic. It was exceptional for the middle classes to feel
concerned with affairs of state. The people, unless touched
I by specially onerous taxation or disturbances of their cus-
toms, accepted without question the rule of the crown.
I Public opinion, if it existed at all, remained latent and
inarticulate. Our knowledge of the ideas of classes so ex-
pressionless becomes positive mainly by its negativeness.
At the beginning of the Sixteenth Century it was hardly
existent or else inaudible save within a narrow circle. Yet
it was destined before many years to become a real force
actively influencing the decisions of the state and possessed
of roots burrowing deep into the nation.
The long anarchy of the Fifteenth Century predisposed
Englishmen, after the restoration of order, to accept more
readily obedience to authority. So long as nothing oc-
curred to disturb the habits of life, government remained
easy. Below the surface a rudimentary opinion, which
had been inherited from freer and more turbulent times,
was quiescent although the Italian traveller who visited .
England in the year 1500 remarked that if the king pro-
posed to change any old established rule, every English-
man would think that his life had been endangered
thereby.'
The cautious practice of Henry VII shows that he bore
lyGooglcj
PUBLIC OPINION 8s
in mind the existence of some such reserve of public opin-
ion which he was careful never to disturb. A prince whose
prestige was so new, had to be doubly cautious to avoid
arousing feeling in violation of any accepted tradition. On
the part of his subjects there was little disposition to force
the issue. Primarily they wanted order and security, not I
liberty of speech. Moreover, they were apprehensive of
its consequences. Thomas More, on being elected to the
speakership, said openly that men were afraid to express
themselves, and begged the king to encourage his subjects
to do so.' But the spirit of Tudor statecraft was never
in favour of such liberties.
Examples of criticism of contemporary events can bcj
found in Skelton's doggerel verse, and in many passages
of Kennedy, Lyndsay and Dunbar. Censure in all agesi
has taken a satiric form, but its popular dress proved in4
sufficient to make more than the narrowest appeal. More
can be gathered by what was left unsaid in the popular
narratives of the time. When such annals as the *' London
Chronicle" relate events like the execution of Thomas
More and Anne Boleyn without comment or relief, when
the diary of a comfortably situated merchant tailor of
London, like Henry Machyn, betrays the same stolid indif-
ference, one draws other deductions.
The greatest changes in the state and church were to
such pens only occurrences without further significance.
They remained either silent or more likely apathetic,
finding their real interest in pageants and festivals. In
this, they were typical of the immense majority of the
population who without awakened opinion were content
to remain silent spectators. Even the execution of great
nobles, certain of whom like the Duke of Buckingham en-
joyed immense popularity, left the public indifferent. The
feudal grip had been shattered and they had not yet be-
come sufficiently identified with the life of the nation to
make an attack on their liberties indistinguishable from
those of other subjects.
ny Google
86 TUDOR IDEALS
TTie direct stimulus to the awakening of public opinion
occurred through a series of events mainly fortuitous,
yet which, coming at a time when the nation's intelligence
was being rapidly developed, created the beginnings of a
public conscience. If at first this responded imperfectly,
it was because of the essential novelty of the procedure,
the unfamiliarity of methods of expression, and the igno-
rance of its own strength. Even with such handicaps it
threatened the foundations of the throne and made the
most imperious of monarchs demean himself in the effort
to win opinion to his side.
Henry VIII's desire to be rid of Katherine had to take
cognizance of the extent to which this shocked his sub-
jects. The obedience of the nation, dis[X)sed to acquiesce
m the most extreme manifestations of royal authority,
was stirred by an action which shook the foundations of
its life. The king had touched at one of those established
rules noticed by the Italian traveller) and the most mas-
terful prince that ever sat on the Ejiglish throne, embarked
on the most extraordinary act of his reign, found that he
had aroused an unsuspected body of adverse opinion. The
queen's popularity was never so great, and the crowd
thronged to cheer her as she passed. The king found him-
self compelled to summon an assemblage of judges, nobles,
and citizens in the great hall at Bridewell and there de-
fend his course. And later, when urged by an audacious
member in Parliament to return to his lawful queen, Henry
swallowing his pride, argued with him in defence of his
action. The resentment was intense throughout the na-
tion. It was sufficient to cause the royal council to begin
by opposing bis marriage to Anne Boleyn, and find sup-
port even from Anne's father who dreaded its conse-
quences. William Peto, provincial of the Friars Observ-
ant, warned the king that he was endangering his crown
by this, " for great and little were murmuring at
it." '
The king saved himself from the worst consequences of
lyGOOgIC
PUBLIC OPINION 87
his audacity by coupling Katherine's cause with the un-
popular one of Rome. His victory might have been doubt-
ful if he had not been adroit enough so to manceuvre as
to make his policy appear national in opposition to the
Pope's wish to mix in English affairs. Almost by acci-
dent, the royal divorce called into life the first explosion
of public opinion in England. Though the result may
seem ineffectual its triumph came by compelling the king
to take cognizance of the new force. The different phases
attending the divorce, the efforts to enhst common law
on the royal side, with Cranmer's plan to collect the
opinions of continental scholars, require no description
here. They were, perhaps, the first acknowledgment of
the force of ideas and the desirability of winning over
the public conscience.
Something new had arisen in Europe. It was intan-
gible and its power was indefinite. But it was important
enough for a tyrant like Henry VIII to seek to conciliate
it. Imperious as was the royal will, the king who aimed
to appear in the light of a popular ruler, endeavoured
to placate the force of this opinion and to enlighten the
realm about his most intimate doings. It was in the
nature of an evilly conceived homage to this feeling
that he wrote to Wallop, the English envoy in Paris,
to justify the execution of More and Fisher on account
of their alleged treason and conspiracy. It was in the
nature of a tribute to public opinion, that the trial of
Katherine Howard in spite of the prurient details of
royal domestic life, took place in public in order that it
might not be said that she had been condemned unjustly.*
Parliament spasmodically asserted its right to free
speech, though limitations were placed on this. It lacked
the feeling of its power and except in the matter of grants,
was little conscious of its dignity. Possessed of slight
corporate realization of authority it formed an aggre-
gate of individuals, restricted in the sense of their duties,
jealous mainly of their control of appropriations and of
lyGOOgIC
88 TUDOR IDEALS
foreign interference, yet in the main subservient to the
royal will.
Almost as a favour the Speaker of the House would
petition for liberty of speech within its precincts.*
And not unnaturally so, since Thomas More's opposi-
tion to Henry VII's request for a grant, had been resented
by that prince and came near causing More's execu-
tion. That royal ideas of members' independence did
not change, was proved by Elizabeth's treatment of
Peter Wentworth who having ventured to criticise her
church policy ' found his speech sequestered while he
was interned in the Tower where later he died a martyr
to liberty of speech.
The sudden growth in importance of public opinion
was partly due to a circumstance of quite different
nature, coinciding with the extraordinary events then
taking place. With the use of the printing press afford-
ing an instrument of diffusion, the isolation of communi-
ties came to an end, A movement analogous to the
centralized power extending its even authority through
i/^ the realm, was now rendered [X)ssible by the spread of
opinion through the printer's press, reaching across
frontiers and restricted only by limitations in education.
Its significance as an instrument was not immediately
realized, though one of the first steps in the strat^y of
Thomas Cromwell's break from Rome, was the printing
in English of Melanchthon's " Apoli^y " and of the Augs-
burg Confession.
After the agricultural rising in Lincolnshire in 1536,
Berthelet the royal printer published Sir John Cheke's
"Lamentation" with its argument against civil war as de-
structive of the Commonwealth, and denouncing rebel-
lion as the greatest of crimes. The first use of the press
was largely ofiicial, but the possibility of it being em-
ployed by others who wished to excite opinion was soon
noticed. Simon Fish's pamphlets against the clergy,
although forbidden, were widely hawked about. Numer-
lyGOOglC
PUBLIC OPINION 89
ous anti-clerical and Lutheran tracts were printed by men
like William Roy, Jerome Barlow, and reformers returned
from the continent. Satirical in form, these broadsides
were for the most part directed against the clergy. The
Government did its utmost to seize and to suppress them,
but never entirely prevented their circulation.
Later Mary's Spanish marriage gave further occasion
for an explosion of adverse criticism. The new force of
public opinion was aroused by an alliance which ap-
peared to threaten the national existence. The dividing
line between unpopularity and revolt was reached at
once with Wyatt's insurrection. Its failure restrained
further expressions of disfavour to the ill-treatment of
Philip's suite, and the compositions of lampoons which
were circulated even at court.^ The fierce hatred then
aroused against the Spaniard was later utilized by Eliza-
beth as a force with which to build the popularity of her
foreign policy.
From the middle of the Sixteenth Century, broadsides
began to be published with increasing frequency, often
in the form of ballads, with puritan and anti-catholic pur-
pose. Being cheap, they circulated freely and in the days
before newspapers afforded popular entertainment. Be-
tween the printing press and public opinion, a connecrion
was now established which awakened the government's at-
tention to the need for a censorship, created in the year
following Elizabeth's accession. Except for small hand
presses granted to each of the Universities, all printing was
henceforth to be exclusively in the capital, supervised by
the Primate and the Bishop of London, the better to bring
it under government control. The charter of the sta-
tioners' company distinctly states, that as seditious and
heretical books were daily printed which spread their de-
testable heresies against the doctrine of the "Holy Mother
Church," the government had taken means to see how this
might be prevented, and had therefore granted to the
ninety-seven members of the Company of Stationers, the
lyGOOgIC
90 TUDOR IDEALS
sole right of printing, seizing and burning al! prohibited
books and of imprisoning persons who should print with-
out this authority.*
Except for clandestine pamphlet literature, which the
government tried to suppress, the popular preachers were
almost alone in daring to speak their minds, and even to tell
royalty what was current in men's mouths. The preacher
in the Sixteenth Century not only expressed but led public
opinion. Regarding himself as spiritually descended from
the prophets of Israel, he felt that a power given by God
lay in his hands, which it was his duty to use before
kings.' Thomas Cromwell fearing such tendencies had
restricted the right of preaching to priests who received
crown licenses. This was not sufficient to restrain their out-
spokenness. Father Peto's frankness before Henry VIII
had led to his expulsion from England. The same mon-
arch, however, selected Latimer to be one of his chap-
lains, although the latter never hesitated in his words
and reminded the king that it was the preacher's duty to
reprove the mighty.
Elizabeth with her view of the clergy as crown officials
was less tolerant of their liberties. The freedom and
often tyranny of speech, which the Scottish ministry used
toward their princes, was blamed south of the Tweed as
"not only undecent but intolerable, for he may do noth-
ing, but they will examine and discuss the same in the
pulpit." "* Certainly, John Knox in his invecrives against
the two Marys, lost all sense of measure when he declared
that the nobility of both countries were inferior to the
beasts of the field because of their subjection to women
and advocated executing for impiety, anyone capable of
defending a woman's rule."
In such explosions there was little sense of fair play
which springs from the feeling of equity arising in less
violent times. The lack of restraint was typical of the
means of expression. Intensity of conviction gave a fierce
tone to all controversy. Bacon, himself the most reason-
lyGOOglC ^
PUBLIC OPINION 91
able of men, defended this when he wrote that "Bitter
and earnest writing must not hastily be condemned;
for men cannot contend civilly and without affectation,
about things which they hold dear and precious. " "
There were other tests to be appHed to such disputes.
Grooves of action exist as well as of thought, and even
those indifferent in matters of faith, found it necessary
to harness their deeds to religious causes. Under the
guise of creed all kinds of questions could be broached
and men and policies attacked from behind their religious
shelter.
The violence of opinion which raged around theological
controversies was reflected in the mass of pamphlets
known as the Martin Marprelate Controversy, of which
one side emanated from the secret presses. The bishops,
with official support behind them, identified their own
position with the throne. They executed John Penry,
but realizing that mere repressive measures of authority
were insufficient, and that the growing force of public
opinion had to be reconciled, enlisted in their aid the lit-
erary hacks of London.
For the first time in England professional means ex-
isted for doing this — pamphleteers able to use their pens
trenchantly and a public which read their productions.
Involved and unreadable as the pamphlets of Greene and
Nash, of Lodge and Dekker, now seem, they were the be-
ginnings of an appeal made to win over the new force of
opinion.
The wider diffusion of education caused a novel inter-
est to be taken in such matters. With the growth of a
reading public, writers treated all kinds of questions.
Elizabeth herself was greatly vexed by a book written
against the French marriage, severely criticising her."
The dispute which raged around it shows that opinion was
far from unanimous. " Leicester's Commonwealth " with
its attack on the royal favourite is the first great example
of English scurrilous literature.
lyGOOgIC
92 TUDOR IDEALS
The printing press was increasingly utilized as an in-
strument for the diifusion of ideas. As it was no longer
possible to ignore the new policy of the government was
to rely on a public opinion which it hoped to form.
The queen's desire for popularity and the wish to find her
aims in harmony with her subjects, stood behind the
declarations which accompanied royal actions. The crit-
ical moments of her reign, as well as the inauguration of
new policies, were attended by the publication of explan-
ations which came out under official inspiration. After
the execution of Mary Stuart there appeared the "Jus-
tification of Queen Elizabeth." When the laws were pro-
mulgated against priests and Jesuits, there was published
the "Great Troubles pretended against the Realm by a
number of Seminary Priests and Jesuits." The use of
torture also evoked sufficient reprobation to make ad-
visable an ofiicial explanation. Burleigh employed John
Stubbes to answer Cardinal Allen, and indicated his
anti-Roman policy by publishing "Justitia" in English,
Latin, French and Italian. Before going to the aid of the
Low Countries, or to that of the Huguenots in France,
a " Declaration of the causes moving the Queen of Eng-
land to give aid" appeared in explanation of such policy.
An official defence of Essex's expedition to Cadiz was
published.
The government realized that it was necessary to give
some attention to guide public opinion along approved
channels in order to prevent its wandering beyond these.
From the precautions taken it is evident that the drama
was thought capable of influencing ideas. Plays had to
be licensed and playwrights were forbidden to touch on
matters of religion or the state. It is notorious that the
censor suppressed certain pages in Holinshed's Chronicle,
while Shakespeare in "Richard II" incurred displeasure
by portraying the conquered king making his sub-
mission. On the eve of his rising, Essex caused this
play to be given in the hope that the deposition and
lyGOOgIC j
PUBLIC OPINION 93
murder of a king might encourage an outbreak. Later
in conversation with the antiquary William Lambarde,
Queen Elizabeth complained that it had been played
for this purpose " forty times in open streets and
houses."
lyGOOgIC
^1
XI. THE SPIRIT OF REVOLT
The weakening of authority which marked the end of
the Middle Ages in England left habits of lawlessness
not easily shaken off. The disorder of the realm had
been arrested by the firm rule of Henry VII, but the
practices developed during a century of anarchy stamped
thdr mark on the nation. Except for resort to force,
the means for manifesting opposition were scanty and
ineffectual. The importance of Parliament was still
slight in the life of the country. It might disapprove
of the king's forfeiture of his enemies' property but,
willingly or not, it passed such acts. The upshot of Sir
Thomas More successfully opposing a parliamentary grant
to Henry VII for his daughter's marriage, was to find
his father locked in the Tower on a trumped-up chai^.'
Opposition to the crown had to find expression in
less legal ways. The vast changes which swept over
Tudor England could hardly take place without affect-
ing the convictions, the loyalty, or the economic condi-
tion of the population. Amid far reaching transfor-
mations it was not difficult to touch the springs of former
lawlessness with its reliance on force. Any appeal to
dissatisfaction found abundant causes for grievance.
By an odd paradox, the crown resting on a loftier pin-
nacle than ever before, with far more potent means of
defence and authority, was more than ever apprehen-
sive for its own existence. This was the result of an age
which to accomplish its purposes resorted to direct-
ness of means unhampered by scruple or fear.
The force of authority attempted by every instrument
of terror to deter men from revolt. The hideous punish-
ment inflicted on rebels, the confiscation of the traitor's
lyGooglcJ
THE SPIRIT OF REVOLT 95
property, the risk to which he exposed his wife and chil-
dren, were cruel expedients resorted to by the crown in
order to intimidate. In the main they proved no more
effective than in Ireland where it became customary for
prospective rebels to convey all their landed estates to
trustees, preserving only a life interest in them.' The
reason for the failure of revolts was due not to any
lack of attempts but to causes of another nature.
The pretext of revolution was nearly always based ori^
supposed loyalty. The throne was sacred. Indignation
against the rightful king was never admitted but only
against the royal advisers. It was nominally loyal as in
the case of the "Pilgrimage of Grace." Bacon remarks
how it was a common practice for seditious subjects to
attack not the sovereign, but those who had authority
under him. The seeds of opposition could always find
ground under the most lavish professions of loyalty.
Monarchy exercised too great a prestige among thel
masses to give open rebellion much chance of success. I
Wyatt's revolt, based on the fear of foreign domina-
tion, failed, because the feeling of loyalty was too strong
among the people. This, more than any other reason,
wrecked every revolution.
Discontent arose from taxation as in the case of thi
Cornish rising, or sympathy for the Church as In th^
Lincolnshire movement, and the rebellion in the West,
under Edward VI. It acquired a local head, gathered
impetus and by collecting the forces of unrest, became
more or less troublesome, but the end was always the
same. Although hardly a county of England was free
from revolt at one time or another during the reigns of
the Tudors, such movements never coincided, and the
crown was always able to handle each insurrection sepa- (
rately. In this sense It stood for the national power while/
the spirit of revolution was generally one of local anarchy.
The main reason why revolt was never successful
may perhaps be found in its cause, invariably coming
)/
lyGOOgIC
96 TUDOR IDEALS
from the wrong direction. The attempts at revolution,
when not stirred from without, were always conserva-
tive in purpose and for most part aimed against new
measures or conditions. The Tudors, by their construc-
tive innovations, had forced the instinct of revolt into
reactionary channels. Its spirit was never that of a
(movement trying to bring about definite reforms in
government. The goal was nearly always toward reaction
and its tendency would have been to hinder the march
of progress in the nation.
Such as it was, the spectre of revolution caused all the
Tudors serious anxiety. Even In Elizabeth's latter years
the fear of revolt, due to fiscal exactions, was among the
causes which made Burleigh desirous for peace with Spain.*
Apprehensions of this nature could not have been idle
fears. The Tudors were doubtless far more conscious than
we can be to-day, of how slender was the margin of safety
in their rule, and how great was the risk of giving rein to
the forces of unrest. What now seem almost gratuitous
acts of cruelty in suppressing revolt, may therefore
have been due to a political necessity which took little
heed of mercy.
As all power emanated from the royal person, so court
intrigue was the most insidious form of rebellion. Henry
VII with clear political sense realized this. Though he
suppressed the Cornish rising with amazing mildness,
when he detected conspiracy nearer the throne, not even
the immense obligations he felt under to Sir William
Stanley could save the latter's head. The cruel treason
laws under which Fisher and Thomas More had suffered
showed how preoccupied was the crown with the thought
of preventing revolt. The belief of the age was expressed
in the words that out of subjects' fears grew princes'
safety. The problem of government was how to accom-
plish this without incurring the charge of tyranny.*
Expedients of different nature were resorted to. A
draft in the handwriting of Edward VI is extant which
lyGOOgIC
THE SPIRIT OF REVOLT 97
planned to make Knights of the Garter swear on their
investiture to reveal all conspiracies against the sovereign
head of their order."
The sense of loyalty diminished as the person of the
prince was approached, and the latter, who scented the
waning affection of his environment was perhaps inclined
to exaggerate the danger. With a people like the Eng-I
lish, the coup d'etat was almost out of question. The
scope of the individual, however highly placed, was not
the same as in Italy or even in France. Especially in
Elizabeth's reign, great established forces existed to
contend with, and it was well-nigh impossible to win
men over from thgii' comfortable inertia to the uncer-
tainty of revolt, ^ssex, who found his example at the
Valois Court, hoped m the queen's declining years to
seize the reins of power. His action was ill prepared
and spasmodic. Although personally most popular
with the Londoners, they dreaded the loss of their prop-
erty and discovered that profit and loyalty coincided.
He could gain no supporters in the city. The old spirit
of turbulence had gone out of the nation and Essex'
quarrel was too personal for men to risk their lives
for him. His action was at the time compared to that of
the Guises entering Paris with a few followers and rousr
ing the capital. But in England the crown was power-
ful enough to handle any emergency. Above all there
ruled a woman of decision. What might have succeeded
if weaker heads had been In authority never came to pass.
The spirit of revolt remained latent throughout the age.
Though its action was never successful, it was close to
the surface in readiness to break out. It was always in
the minds of political thinkers. When Crowley advo-
cated forcible resistance to the enclosure of the com-
mons, he wrote that "we must needs fight it out or else
be brought to like slavery that the Frenchmen are in." '
Later one of Sidney's ailments against the French
marriage was the danger it presented of reducing the
lyGOOgIC
98 TUDOR IDEALS
English people to the level of French peasants and
bringing in a servile tyrann)' with its attendant peril of
popular inundation.^
In contrast to the many who exalted royalty were a
few who disparaged it. Such arguments were often cath-
olic and controversial, emanating from Rome and Douai.
They were none the less put forward by Englishmen and
were as typical of the lack of moderation of the age
and of the violence of ideas unhindered by restraint or
compromise, as were the advocates of divine right. Those
who advanced them, condemned the servility of doctrines
of absolurism and ridiculed the idea of kingship being
inherent in the state of nature or existing since the
beginning of the world. They argued that common-
wealths retained their authority to chasten and remove
kings and even cut off their heads.' The author of
"A Conference" cites the long list of deposed English
monarchs from John to Richard III. If this was not
lawful, he exclaims, it would be necessary to disavow
their successors' acts. Catholic writers seeking to under-
mine the authority of Elizabeth, advanced a theory of
revolution, which found its realizarion in the days of
the Puritan Commonwealth.
, In the contemporary drama also, there are indications
/ of the latent turbulence below the surface. Englishmen
were proud of their martial virtues. They recognized the
need of a firm hand and gladly accepted its rule so long
as it remained strong and not unduly oppressive. But
fthe disposition to revolt at weakness or injusrice was
never far removed. With the poets' quick intelligence,
Marlowe appreciated this spirit in his nation. The Scy-
I thian shepherd Tamburlaine reviles, without mercy, the
fugitive king and then wins the crown for himself When
Chosroes revolts against his brother, the King of Persia,
the latter is made to say:
"Kings are clouts that every man shoots at."
lyGOOgIC
THE SPIRIT OF REVOLT 99
"Hie playwright's choice of historical subjects kept alive
the remembrance of former days when the nobles curbed
the royal power. In representing the humiliation of the
kings they created an unconscious link between the drama
which the Puritans abhorred and their own later revo-
lution. Young Mortimer declares in Marlowe's line that
when commons and nobles join, the king cannot resist
them.*
In the anonymous play of "Edward I," occurs a signif-
icant passage which flattering the popular audience be-
trays this undercurrent of restlessness and readiness to /
revolt.
"The people of this land are men of war,
The women courteous, mild, and debonair;
Living their lives at princes' feet
That govern with familiar majesty.
But if this sovereign once 'gin swell with pride ^
Disdaining commons love which is the strength
And sureness of the richest commonwealth
That prince were better live a private life
Than rule with tyranny and discontent."
(I, 247. iq.)
lyGOOgIC
t: Go ogle
PART II
THE INDIVIDUAL
lyGOOgIC
lyGOOgIC
I. THE NEW INDIVIDUALISM
British medieval imperialism had been defeated byf
French nationalism. Thrown back on itself, England/
was to pass through a self-centred phase. After every
great disaster when a nation is shaken to its roots, former
conventions lose their prestige. The structure which
generations have patiently built up, crumbles, leaving
only the rock foundation. Calamities arise from many
causes but their results are always the same. When au-
thority, whatever its origin, is deprived of that union of
power and prestige which makes for orderly government,
and becomes unequal to the task of justifying its own
existence, it invites a defiance which in turn leads easily
to anarchy and civil war.
The medieval system collapsed when no longer able to i
restrain the pressure of forces which refused to fit into j
its groove. Feudalism, admirably adjusted for a some-
what primitive military society, became unable to cope
with the new problems arising from a nation growing in
strength, even amid reverses. It was less England that
had been expelled from France than its barons. It was
less England that suffered from the effects of anarchy
in the Fifteenth Century than its feudal leaders with
thar henchmen. Hence arose the strange phenomenon
of a narion which on the surface was ravaged by disorder
and civil war, yet whose humbler elements in silence
were preparing the greatness of the morrow. While i
the barons were consuming themselves in their quarrels, (
London and Bristol merchants were growing rich. When
Henry Tudor placed the crown on his head, the real rev-
olurion he effected was less the result of victory, which
as leader of the Lancastrians he had won, than in putting
lyGOOgIC
I04 TUDOR IDEALS
himself at the head of the new England arising out of
the ashes of the old.
J English medieval imperialism had done much to re-
fine and civilize England. The long contact with France
and the continent encouraged a continuous interchange
of ideas and tastes. When this was broken, England
became insular agmn and its civilization suffered in
consequence. The English moral nature touched rock
bottom and appeared again with rude and primitive
virtues and failings. This was the nationalism of the
Iage. It was intolerant, conservative, aggressively reac-
tionary, with little sympathy for all that was not shaped
in its own image. So far as it possessed any intellectual
foundation, it felt instinctively its low capacity of satu-
ration, with the fear lest the absorption of foragn ingredi-
ents should threaten its character. It cared only to per-
petuate its dull self as if the world could produce nothing
nobler. All this was roughly true not only of England
during the Fifteenth Century, but of every country trav-
ersing a dangerous crisis when men turn to the crude
virtues which spring from homely roots.
It was the peculiar merit of the Tudors to have taken
the lead in guiding the English nation from the danger
of its self-centredness. Their policy was partly deliber-
ate, even more unconscious, but the result was the same.
Aiming to increase their own security and enhance their
power, the effect was to rescue England by novel means
from the narrow path into which it had strayed.
Tudor policy deliberately destroyed or reduced those
intermediate forms of collective authority which had
arisen during the Middle Ages, and had previously stood
between the individual and the prince. Out of the
dust of ruins a fresh edifice of power was built whose first
beneficiary was the prince. What others lost he gained.
The expanded position of the nation centred in him at
the same time as his individual authority rose to an un-
precedented height. But the immensity of office proved
lyGOOgIC
THE NEW INDIVIDUALISM 105
too great and single-handed he could not humanly take
full advantage of the prize won.
Unwittingly royal policy favoured the development ofl
individualism in its subjects. Intent to destroy the poweri
of venerable institutions, the alternative lay in recogniz-l
ing the power of man. The crown, averse to strength-
ening an already created order, was obliged to have re-
course to individuals to carry out its policies, and though
it tried to treat these as servile tools, at the first oppor-
tunity they escaped from such dependence. The brief
reign of Edward VI showed to what lengths the ambition
of those around the throne could go. The new individu-
alism, vigorous and energetic, was everywhere pushing •
its way. The growth of power was swift and the rigidity
or prestige of new institutions in unsettled times was still
insufficiently developed to stand in the path of forceful
un sc ru pul ou s n ess .
Consciously and unconsciously the spiritof the agecon- |
duced to a new development of personality. The Ren-
aissance had taught man his moral worth and dignity,
its opportunities had favoured the assertion of his wildest
dreams. Suddenly the atmosphere about him became
enlarged. At a time when the prince's tyranny was
greatest, by a strange paradox liberty arose out of the I
equality of opportunity presented by the novel conditions 1
of life. The old horizons had been brushed aside and so
long as man refrained from challenging the prince's
power he was free to roam at will in any field.
This general condition was characteristic of the Renais-
sance through Western Europe. But on the continent
after the first great wave had passed bearing the new in-
dividualism as a doctrine of life, religious wars brought
about fresh collective groupings created under the pres-
sure of necessity. In England, however, new ideas of mdi-
vidualism had been grafted on a stock whose natural
tradition inclined to rough independence. Soon they ac-
quired the force of a national trait. Favoured by policy
lyGOOgIC
io6 TUDOR IDEALS
and the culture of the Renaissance, individualism has been
at the root of much of England's greatness, of its enter-
prise and daring, its fortitude, and its sense of human
justice. It has also been the partial cause for that spirit
of isolation which continental nations have so often re-
proached.
IThe individualism common to the whole of Europe in
the Sixteenth Century, was for historical reasons able to
survive mainly in England where it passed into the fibre
of the race. The adjustability of the English system owes
its origin to this recognition of individual rights, unham-
pered by the oppression of any institution or caste. The
bitterness of class hatred which so often left its shadow on
the continent was little known in England owing to the
broadness of this principle dating from Tudor times.
I The tolerance of English ideas has come from what is
I perhaps the most characteristic feature of the British na-
Iture, a practical outlook of life which disregards theory,
)and a peculiar talent for compromise which is its result.
Devotion to abstract ideas has never formed part of the
English creed. Added to this, neither the ideals of the
Renaissance, nor of the Reformation, were indigenous
to British soil. Both were of foreign origin and as such,
both attached to themselves weaker loyalties than in the
lands of their birth. Their currents, moreover, traversing
English life ran in opposite directions. The first pursued
its downward course from court to people, the second took
an upward line from people to court. Vertical progresses
in the path of ideas usually mean a series of adjustments
before these are able to break through from one layer to
the other. England compromised with Luther just as
it had compromised with Pagan antiquity, nationali^ng
both, so to speak, and making both assume English dress.
The Sixteenth Century in England was marked less by
the fertility of new ideas than of new enei^ics. It is, per-
haps, a peculiarity of the British genius to accommodate to
its purposes the ideas of others. Just as in statecraft the
lyGOOgIC
THE NEW INDIVIDUALISM 107
French example was deliberately imitated by the new
Tudor monarchy, so in every path by which the genius
of the age was marked, foreign inspiration can be traced.
Whether in navigation, or in the drama. Englishmen
borrowed from abroad the invention and the plots of
others.
In this, the English mind followed instinct rather than
theory. It attained enduring effects partly because of
native virtues, partly favoured by circumstance, but
partly, too, because untroubled with the labour of dis-
covery, it was able to take results ready made, incorpo-
rate these in every degree of assimilation, and strike
out at once in its quest for success. .
The excess of individualism which for a rime ran riot^
was restrained by a series of compromise measures. In
the effort to create a better organized state, class interest 1
as in all new countries tended to follow lines of property. I
To this extent the second half of the Sixteenth Cen-\
tury marked a reaction from the somewhat capricious \
individualism of the first.
The liberating breath of the Renaissance descending
lower, spread itself through great classes hitherto un-
touched. Long after the new ideas had ceased to mean
more than a cultivated education for the upper classes,
their influence entered like a serum into the blood of
the English race to bring forth the magnificent explosion
of Elizabethan genius. The Virgin Queen herself, to dub.
her by the most questionable of all her virtues, reigned
over an epic age when life became an adventure. The de-
scendants of the archers of Cr^cy were to sail Drake's
ships, and greater riches were to come from across the
seas than were ever looted from the towns of France.
Instead of a pilgrimage to Canterbury, the poet's im-
agination could make London prentices behold Cleopatra.
When in a later generation Cromwell dared to strike
the anointed king, there was behind him and his victim,
in precept and in act, the daring of the Renaissance.
lyGOOgIC
io8 TUDOR IDEALS
I The national characteristics of the English in the Six-
I teenth Century, were the traits exhibited by a vigorous
I and gifted race who, after a long intellectual somnolence,
I were suddenly aroused and quickened by a succession
lof such forces as have always stirred mankind. Adven-
I ture, ambition, and patriotic feeling were the impulses, a
free horizon and boundless opportunity the condition,
and a fresh outlook with its vision of new worlds, the
atmosphere. Englishmen reacted to these just as Italians,
Frenchmen, and Spaniards had reacted. Circumstance,
and those indefinables which escape analysis, turned the
English genius in its most enduring form toward ad-
venture in act and in imagination. The world of poets
and the world of mariners seemed young again when
brightened by the new life. In this sense the permanent
records of that time were written in the very ink of the
Renaissance. English blood had changed litde in the
interval, but its pulse beat stronger and its quality had
grown richer with the spirit of the new age.
lyGOOgIC
11. THE GROWTH OF PERSONALITY
In the Middle Ages human introspection took a cleri-
cal garb. Laymen had not yet learned to record their
sensations, and observation remained impersonal with
traces of anonymity lingering far into the new age. Thei
novelty of the Sixteenth Century in England lay in]
the human outlook extending over a wider horizon than I
ever before. In thought and in action, fresh perspec-
tives opened, and out of these were formed new ideals
which shaped the sailor, the poet, the statesman, and the
soldier. Genius is in itself independent of any age, but
its expression never lies far remote from the channels
of its energy. Hamlet could not have been written
before England had ripened into the fulness of her own
humanity.
The threads of this development are not easy to unravel.
Men's grosser reactions to environment can be followed,
but the subtler influences of human evolution remain
obscure. The flow of ideas and varying nature of their
pressure become elusive so soon as one seeks to pierce
beyond the surface.
The intellectual history of the Sixteenth Century in Eng-
land, was not so much one of originality, as of the ex- I
tension of ideas into channels previously unknown. The
outlook on life alters less readily by direction than un-
consciously or by circumstance, and the novelty of the
age arose through the transformation of a medieval tradi-
tion as soon as it had been brought into sight of fresh
horizons. The new political, religious, and geographical
conditions, which arose haphazardly, all reacted on the
mind of the age to bring about something novel which
made the work of reconstruction soon out-distance the
destruction of the ancient fabric.
lyGOOgIC
no TUDOR IDEALS
There are moments in the lives of nations when these
renovate themselves and shed the encumbrances of a past
no longer in relation with actual conditions. The Sixteenth
( Century was an age when men were most sensitive to
' impressions. Amid the chaos of new ideas the English
for a time lost their moorings. They had shaken ofFRome
without entirely replacing it. They had shaken off scho-
lastic discipline without finding its equivalent in antiq-
uity. The old sanctions had been destroyed but new
ones had not yet filled their place.
I Confusion marked the first half of the century in Eng-
' land. Crude and ill-digested ideas of power, and of creed,
bore little relation to the gropings of the nation. The
result became apparent in the contradictory aspects of life,
the wide extremes between ideals and practice, and the
deep rifts which then separated the community. A feeling
lof restless insecurity set in, Httle conducive to the growth
of finer aspirations. The brilliant dawn of the early Re-
naissance in England was followed by a grey sky. For
half a century the country seemed at a standstill.
Many men of that age remained baffled by events they
could not explain. They suffered or profited by results
which in themselves seemed mysterious. To-day, in
the light of another perspective, the great figures of Eng-
lish history appear less as originators of new forces than
as diverting these to their own benefit. The first half of
I the Sixteenth Century proved a period of adjustment
necessarily rough and incomplete between two ages at dif-
ferent levels. The work of destruction and of expansion
proceeded side by side, advanced or retarded according
to circumstance or design, but resulting in a continuous
transformation. The moral disorder characterizing it
was almost inseparable from an epoch which had lost its
bearings.
During these years, a variety of circumstances of dif-
ferent order coincided to free the individual from his early
horizon and open before him new perspectives. The dis-
lyGOOglC
THE GROWTH OF PERSONALITY iii
coveryof antiquity, of America, and the revolt from Rome,
form the elementary commonplaces of such observation.
But vast changes come about less by conscious than by
silent action. We are prone to remark only the great
landmarks of the past. The enumeration of universally
recognized facts, docs not lead much beyond these,
and their direct influence may even mislead. After the
revelation which the discovery of antiquity had been to
the early humanists, save for a select few it became merely
an accepted system of education, handed down to our
own day almost as meatless as the medieval scholastic
discipline it replaced. The fastidious taste of classical
scholarship exercised little direct influence on the English
mind though its indirect and popular reactions were of
greater value. The Ancient World lived again only when
the public took crude hold of it in much the same way
as it seized on any new fashion to make it part of life.
In matters of faith we are apt to think of Henry VIII's
break from Rome as part of the broad movement of Augs-
burg and Geneva. But far from leading men to think out
the problem of their salvation, the Reformation in Eng-
land, for the vast majority of the population, meant merely
exchanging foreign papal supremacy for the national one
of the crown. The official movement, save for one brief
period, settled down into the comfortable doctrine of an
established church. The fact that crown and people were
for the most time in unison, took sharpness out of a strug-
gle which was mainly earned on by catholic martyrs and
puritan extremists.
The more complete is the acceptance of great ideas the
more negligible they become, for character develops
from the clash of principle. The moral fibre of the nation
was to be affected more by the Puritan struggle under the
Stuarts, than by the easy victory of the Tudor Reforma-
tion. So little had the essenrials of life then altered that
many still believe Shakespeare to have been a Catholic,
while from his writings it is impossible to discern his creed.
lyGOOgIC
1 12 TUDOR IDEALS
The growth of personality was due not so much to ob-
vious and oft-cited causes as to less conspicuous reasons.
Great events introduced new elements into life, but these
remained beyond the nation's ken so long as they were
not assimilated by the silent workings of unseen reactions.
To render them so they had first to be broken up by means
which often made them unrecognizable from their original
form. New ideas in themselves were insufficient. A few
enthusiasts might grasp their meaning, but to the bulk
of the nation they continued alien and indigestible. Those
"nstincts inherent in any healthy people which make for
ts unity and form the unsconscious fibre of its national-
ism, were refractory to direct proselytism from abroad.
The Renaissance could sweep over Italy like a new gospel
because it revived there the glories of its own past and
continued its traditions. In England it found its welcome
mainly at the court which stood above the roots of na-
tional life and by its reception of novelties unconsciously
performed a function of usefulness in the state. But be-
low it in the broadening circles of the English people the
spirit of the Renaissance met with a travesty of compre-
hension which transformed its nature.
The genius of the nation lay in transforming the mix-
ture of foreign and native traits and blending them together
in every stage of assimilation. Often the want of under-
standing helped them to become English. In this sense the
very blunders committed acted as a flood gate which kept
out the tide from abroad. Foreign ideas entered into the
national life, misunderstood, and acquired their British
denizenship less by comprehension than by error — for error
is as great a factor in human evolution as is understanding.
And error also possesses its utility in human progress. A
more discriminating sense of the meaning of the Renais-
sance would have produced a greater scission in England
between those who felt the revelation of its baptism and
the barely awakened mass who remained beyond its ken.
The fact that its grasp was restricted to a few cour-
lyGOOglC
-I
THE GROWTH OF PERSONALITY 113
tiers and classical scholars at the Universities without
other influence on the nation, allowed England to acquire
the lessons of antiquity not from the reading of purists
but by mistakes which were common to all.
The growth of personality was due less to imitation
than to the adaptation of new influences reacting on
novel circumstances. The Tudor princes recognized the
full significance of these and placed themselves astride
the currents of the age. But the reactions proved greater
than "even their foresight could realize. England was
touched in its most sensitive fibre, and out of a strange
medley, noble and base, a richer life was born.
New ideas are always most vigorous with their first har-
vest. The vitality of the nation had for so many years
been treasured up almost unexpended, that it could sud-
denly display itself with exuberant vigour. The rich per-
sonalities of the age sprang from a strong people who after
having long been starved in their ideas, and imprisoned:
within a narrow oudook, experienced the sensation of
freedom produced by a broader perspective. Sudd«nly
the nation found its soul in the least expected way. It
was steadied by the menace of foreign danger and buoyed
up by the new discoveries overseas. When after St. Bar-
tholomew, Protestant hopes crumbled in France, Eng-
land assumed the leadership of the cause. The Protes-
tant continent turned to EUizabeth in the great fight
with Spain, and when finally she emerged victorious,
it was not merely that her arms had triumphed, but
that something had been acquired in the mental horizon
of men, which came not from books but from a new
knowledge of the world. Scholarly England lagged be-
hind other states of Western Europe, but Englishmen
were then many with a broad outlook over the world
beyond the seas and with a mental view which came
more from events than out of books.
The real lesson of the Renaissance is not to be found
in the learning of its scholars but in the breadth of view
lyGOOgIC
114 TUDOR IDEALS
which urged men to dare all. When this had been achieved
its true spirit had been assimilated into English life.
The growth of personality in the Sixteenth Century was
^ thus the product of two circumstances of different nature
contributing to one result. The first had come from the
destruction of the past — feudalism, monasticism, scholas-
ticism, Rome — the veneration or affection for all had been
destroyed. But out of the ruins, another structure had
arisen built largely with former materials blended with the
new. England became conscious of being embarked on a
new enterpnse. Patriotism was exalted, greed was awak-
ened by the hope of wealth, a new world without owner-
ship was open to whoever dared, and Englishmen dared
the venture.
These were the main conditions which gave a freer
rein to personality and encouraged the growth of that
splendid expansion of the mind working in its achieve-
ment through an ever-widening circle. It was carried out
among a people still living among old traditions though
ruled from above with the spirit of the Renaissance.
At any other time the transformation which then took
placewould have been attended by far graver consequences
as in France and in Germany. The weaker royal power
might not have succeeded in guiding it before. Later the
people would have found more strength to curb their
masters. The extraordinary events of the first half of the
Sixteenth Century in England were rendered possible by
the development of the crown preceding that of the people.
The expansion which threw such brilliancy on the latter
years of the century, was due to the people having caught
up in the race with their rulers, and conditions existing for
the first time which allowed a free outlet for the energy of
aU.
lyGOOgIC
III. THE VICISSITUDES OF FORTUNE t
Strong men shape their opportunities best during pe-
riods of swift change, and the dissolution of the medieval
structure in England left conditions Buid enough to fa-
vour the rise of the individual. Success leaves its origins
quickly behind and the remembrance of Bosworth Field
alone lingered after the early years passed by Henry
Tudor as a tracked and penniless refugee in Brittany
with hardly a shred of title to the throne, had been for-
gotten. His example encouraged others in audacity.
No Casanova went through stranger vicissitudes than
the son of the Tournai boatman Perkln Warbeck, simu-
lating the murdered Duke of York, and accepted at courts
as a royal pretender. Far more than the cautious Tudor,
his demeanour gave men the impression of kingliness.
His wife of Scottish blood royal was devoted to him.
Even in adversity he found admirers and when led through
London a spectacle for the multitude, the crowd remarked
that he bore his misfortune bravely.
The vicissitudes in fortune of women tike Anne Boleyn or
Katherine Howard could hardly be paralelled in any other
age. In Byzantium, women even of the lowest origin had
attracted the prince's fancy and shared with him the
purple. But never before could a woman like Anne Boleyn i
from inconspicuous b^nnings have become the centre I
of discord for Christian Europe, only to be destroyed by I
the same hand which raised her. The royal power had
been elevated to such a pitch that whatever touched it I
rose to sink as quickly again when favour ceased.
For whoever was born under the shadow of the throne
or approached it, life was near to danger. When Lord
Burleigh was accused, in a contemporary libel of the wish
lyGOOgIC
ii6 TUDOR IDEALS
to many his grandchild William Cecil to Lady Arabella
Stuart, Bacon could find no better argument to demon-
strate the falsity of the charge than to say that Lord
Burleigh's wisdom taught him "to leave to his posterity
rather surety than danger. Marri^e with the blood royal
was too full of risk to be lightly entered into."
Few there were of any prominence free from momenta
of grave peril. Four women during the Sixteenth Cen-
tury claimed the English throne, the two Marys, Lady
Jane Grey, and Elizabeth. Two Hved in danger of their
lives and two ended theirs on the scaffold. Elizabeth many
years after told a French ambassador that white a pris-
oner at Woodstock, she felt certain that she would be
executed, and made up her mind to ask in sole request
of her sister Mary, that instead of an axe, a sword be
used as in France, and a French executioner be sent for
from Calais.' Later as queen she lived in expectation of
assassination. The vicis^tudes of her own experience
could not do otherwise than react on a character which re-
mained unsoftened. The memory of her mother disgraced
and executed, herself declared ill^rimate, and passed
over in the succession, stamped her personality. Re-
plying to a petition of Parliament, she dwelt on her expe-
riences of the world. She had known what it was to be a
subject and what to be a sovereign. She had found trea-
son and distrust and ingratitude. She took litde pleasure
in life and saw little terror in death.'
t Below the throne men rose from nothing, tasted the
I sweets of power, and returned to nothing. Wolsey's
I elevation to an authority which was Oriental if it had
not been Renaissance, was almost as precipitate as his
fall. He accepted his disgrace like a Moslem fatalist.
When summoned to surrender his seal of office and give up
his belongings no word of blame escaped him. He wished
the world to know that as his riches and honours had
come from the king it was his duty to surrender all to
him.* His attendant and bic^;rapher Cavendish, com-
t: Go Ogle
THE VICISSITUDES OF FORTUNE 117
ments m Eastern fashion on his fall. It was . folly to ex-
press surprise at this, for it rested tn the order of events.
Even more precipitate was the career of Thomas
Cromw^ . The son of a Putney blacksmith, he had
Been an inconspicuous soldier of fortune in Italy, a trader,
a money-lender and a lawyer. He had been employed
by the great Cardinal and risen with his fall. He had
been used by the king and adorned his throne with the
wealth and power of the Church, till the royal favour
forsaking him his head had rolled on the scaffold.
The French traveller Perlin, during his visit to London
in 1558, was impressed by the uncertainty of English]^
life. One day, he remarked, one sees a man as a great
lord, the next he is in the hands of an executioner. The
Jesuit Parsons, enumerated the mighty, executed or
degraded under Henry VIII — two queens, Anne Boleyn
and Catherine Howard, three Cardinals, Wolsey, Pole
and Fisher, the last beheaded, three dukes "put down,"
Buckingham, Suffolk and Norfolk, the first two losing
lands and lives, the last lands and liberty, a marquess,
Devonshire, two earls, Kildare and Surrey, the latter be-
headed, two countesses condemmed to death, Devon-
shire and Salisbury, the latter executed, while of peers
he mentions Darcy, Hersey, Montagu, Leonard Grey,
Dacres of the South and Cromwell. All this within the
space of twenty years and in peace.*
As is still the case in Oriental states where rule is
personal, the visible and invisible structure of restraint
had not yet grown to limit the (iall scope of either success
or disfavour. The emergence of free personality in the
Renaissance began by giving an unchecked bridle to
the prince's authority with the resulting suppression of
those who had lost his favour. The first condition of
disgrace was the forfeiture of property, but death was
close at hand even to those who felt themselves most
secure. The ebb of the same tide which carried them
high was often the cause for their undoing.
lyGOOgIC
118 TUDOR IDEALS
Such conditions came from the prince's swollen power
reacting on a situation of insufficient stability or tradi-
tion. The crown had drawn as a magnet some of the
best, the indifFerent and the worst elements in the realm,
and these ilUfused and with spheres ill-defined, clashed
incoherently around the royal person. The still imma-
ture structure of the state had not yet caught up with
the over rapid expansion of life. TTie authority which
filled the uncharted spaces, favoured the precipitate
rise in fortune of those able to profit by their oppor-
tunities. National evolution had not yet reached a
point where the margin of fortune was reduced to the
conventional and orderly proportions of more stable
times.
I Such sudden changes quickened the pulse of feeling
and lent a dramatic quality to life. The contemporary
Sir Robert Naunton, described Ralpigb^a-^ajeer in words
which could be applied to many others, that fortune
had i^ed him as a tennis ball; "for she tossed him up
of nothing and to and fro to greatness and from thence
down to little more than that wherein she found him."'
Raleigh himself said finely, "For conversation of partic-
ular greatness and dignity there is nothing more noble
and glorious than to have felt the force of every fortune.
. . . He only is to be reputed a man whose mind can-
not be puffed up by prosperity nor dejected by any ad-
verse fortune."'
The prevalence of such vicissitudes reacted on charac-
ter. They freed energy by opening high perspectives and
infused a finer temper of courage, by making the men of
that age ripen in an atmosphere of danger. But the
same atmosphere also produced fatalism and a callous-
ness to the misery of others. When peril menaced
all, men became indifFerent to it. Personality acquired
both a greater elasticity and a hardening sheath. It
grew richer through nearness to extreme and the rapid
passage through many phases. Some played like gam-
lyGOOglC
all.i
up \
THE VICISSITUDES OF FORTUNE 119
biers with life, for the age was as acquisitive as it was
venturesome and many risked all for the wish to gain.
Daring adventure, the power to will and stake all,
if need be, on a single throw of the dice, arrogance
prosperity, fortitude in disaster were the traits held
for admiration. The same characteristics which had
once gained a throne were now diffused by the Renais-
sance spirit descending into an ever-widening circle.
"That lite I best that flies beyond my reach"
says Marlowe's Guise.'
Sir Thomas Stukely, pirate, adventurer, even traitor
to his sovereign, was -a popular hero, in whose mouth
Peelc puts the doctrine of virtu:
^""^^ "There shall no action pass my hand or eword
That cannot make a step to gain a crown
King of a molehill had I rather be
Than the richest subject of a monarchy." *
Spenser could write : "One joyous hour in blissful hap-
piness " was preferable to a life of wretchedness. The
gospel of the Renaissance was one of life, with all its
adornments. The new idea of immortality was the
ancient one arising out of life and not of death. Let
friars and philosophers call the soul immortal, the real
contribution of the age was that hfe could also become so.
A heroic age in the history of a nation does not mean that I
its baser instincts have been subdued. The century wasi
material and sordid in spite of the fine elements in its fibre. ' .
Often the same activity which stirs the highest, animates
the lowest as well and makes such sides of life assume
a distorted prominence. Spenser might hold Mammon 1
to scorn. Lyly, who with all his conceits was closer in |
touch with life than the poet, complained that in England 1
it was "as in every place all for money." '
Daring recklessness was no universal characteristic,
and the conservative elements arising with the growth
lyGOOgIC
I20 TUDOR IDEALS
of the new propertied class were to bring to the fore
other traits of caution. Extreme pliability is the reac-
tion of the prudent to danger. Not al! were caught by
the fervour of ambition to risk everything. In that age
of swift change some veered to every breeze, became
sceptical and cynical and barefacedly changed their
coats. The contemporary epigram of the statesman
who owed his success to resembling the willow rather
than the oak throws light on Paulet's character. Sir
John Mason, Ambassador at the French Court, has left
his own maxims of success during such times. He spoke
little and wrote less. He was always intimate with the
sharpest lawyer and the ablest favourite. Having
reached a point where each party regarded him as ser-
viceable to them, he was so moderate that all thought
him their own. Pliability marked many of the foremost
figures of the time. Men with feeble convictions made
little difficulty in changing their opinions to escape dan-
ger or to gain reward. Such opportunism was the cor-
rective to the risks of the age.
With few exceptions a strain of great prudence ran
through all the Tudor advisors. The lesson of Wolsey,
More,- and Cromwell had not been lost, and men like
Paget and Cecil found caution more conducive to success.
£ecil had changed his creed with every sovereign. His
prudence was such, that when presenting drafts of
policy to the queen, he was always careful to point out
their drawbacks as well as their advantages. His worldly
wisdom down to the most commonplace details trans-
pires in his advice to his son. The cautious counsellor of
the prince without impulse or fire, was no fanciful crea-
tion. The sharp vicissitudes of fortune had found their
own corrective in the statesman, who offered no hold for
a royal whim to break. The anger of the queen could
rightly exhaust itself on a Norfolk or an Essex. Her own
caution had engendered a school of ministers who shared
it with her.
lyGOOgIC
IV. VIOLENCE IN PRIVATE LIFE ^
The atmosphere of violence which marked the end of
the Middle Ages was succeeded by an age where violence
became confined to the individual. The state might be
regulated, but not personal character with its immediate
inheritance dating from a century of anarchy. The idea
of redress by private action, was living to men with
whom the foundarions of order rested on slight security
and where other methods of restraint did not exist. For I
good or for evil far more then lay within the reach of the I
individual. This p)erhaps helps to explain the flagrant I
disregard of political morality. '
English practices remained idyllic compared with those
prevalent at the Valois Court, but survivals of the old
lawless spirit left their trace. Philip Sidney threatened
to thrust his dagger into his father's secretary whom he
suspected of opening his private letters.
The point of honour masked the desire for brawling.!
The duel was of current practice in spite of innumerable
arguments against its absurdity.' Europe sat for its
manners at the footstool of Italy and the Italian spirit of
private vengeance was everywhere understood. La-I
ertes professed satisfaction with Hamlet's apolt^ butl
not "in my terms of honour." His treachery in seeking!
to kill him with a poisoned rapier carried out the Italian)
idea of injured honour demanding vindication.
Those too timorous to take the law into their own
hands found worse means. Hired iravi were not un-
known in England and Lord Oxford tried to have Sidney
murdered- John Stanhope with twenty men attempted
to kill Sir Charles Cavendish.* Leicester was charged
with seeking to assassinate the French Envoy Simier who
had informed the queen about his secret marriage to
lyGOOgIC
122 TUDOR IDEALS
Lady Essex.* Whatever may have been the truth of Amy
Robsart's death, public opinion attached it to him and
accused him of poisoning his enemies through his Italian
physician de Julio. * Lord Essex's death was said to
have been due to an "Italian recipe," for poison was
supposed to be given in small doses leaving no traces, but
slowly sapping the organism so skilfully that men could
be made to die from any disease. Its presence was al-
ways suspected in the case of deaths for which medical
skill could not account.
Crime was probably often alleged without foundation.
Its chronicle is not peculiar to any age and it would be
easy to piece out of our own times a network of evil
deeds as ferocious as any of the Renaissance. The fact
that popular imagination was so impressionable to the
narrative of violence, and that a commonplace murder
like that of Arden of Feversham attracted much at-
tention, rather suggests its rarity.
Human imagination is at all times interested in the
narration of crime, and the story of the much abused
Wild Darell is in no way peculiar to the century.
Less criminal manifestations or violence were more typi-
cal, like the well-known anecdote about Richard Gren-
ville showing his fortitude at a dinner with Spanish cap-
tains, by chewing glass. This incident, unimportant
enough in itself, was the counterpart in action of the ideal
of frightfulness in Marlowe. When Tamburlaine makes
the captured Emperor Bajazet act as his footstool,
when he cuts his arm to teach his son courage, and then
kills him because he is a coward, when he harnesses kings
as horses to his chariot, slaughters the virgins of Da-
mascus or drowns the inhabitants of Babylon, he expressed
in poetry the Renaissance love of the terrible in art,
and of violence as a characteristic of greatness. Re-
tt straint found no place in the literary canons of the age.
Letters and life have a differing relation to each other
which makes all generalization dangerous. The Eliza-
lyGOOgIC
VIOLENCE IN PRIVATE LIFE 123
bethan drama with its portrayal of crime and violence,)
was not representative of English life. The frequency i
of vengeance on the stage suggests that this motive C
as an incentive to crime was readily understood, but
it was associated more with Italy where the absence of
central authority and the inadequacy of the law, favoured I
the wronged individual taking the remedy into his ownf
hands.
The spirit of the Renaissance and in a sense its greatJ
ness, was due to the quest of a single purpose in the
face of every obstacle. To attain an end, restraint was]
abandoned, although in England violence no longer formed/
part of daily life and in a sense had become exotic. Onf
native soil its manifestations beyond vulgar crime werel
sporadic. Yet its spirit still lingered close to the imagina-'
tion. In the " Winter's Tale" Leonates tries to poison hts I
guest and lifelong friend whom he suspects of seducingf
his wife. When in doubt as to the truth of charges
made against his daughter he feels it incumbent that his
honour be violently avenged. Perhaps one reason why
the Elizabethan drama save in the greater Shakesperian
masterpieces remains so dead to us, is the lack of con-
tact between modem life and private vengeance. The
Englishman of the Sixteenth Century had still enough
associations with former recollections of violence to make
the crimes of Italy appear not altogether remote.
ny Google
V. THE EVOLUTION OF WOMAN
Medieva l ideas of women survived long after the
Middle Ages were ended. Any established order when
challenged will always find defenders and the first asser-
tions of feminism were denounced by theologians who
invoked the contempt of the church fathers to prove
woman's inferiority as divinely ordained. Hugh Latimer
denounced the sex as designed by Providence to be un-
derlings.' Knox's thunderbolts against women are
famous, though he lived surrounded by them. Even a
poet like Lyndsay could write in jingling rhyme
"So all women in their degree
Should to their men subject be." *
The idea then widely entertained of women as an infe-
rior sex was not so remote from facts. Taken as a whole,
they had hardly moved with the times and until late in
I the Sixteenth Century the great mass of womanhood
remained densely ignorant.
The extraordinary diversity of the age is nowhere
better realized than in the wide extremes of feminism.
To the few striking examples of learned women can be
contrasted the great silent class of illiterates. Shake-
spere's mother, the daughter of a rich farmer, could prob-
ably not write her own name.* The penetration of
other ideas of education in women was hindered more by
inertia and indifference than by any wilful intention to
resist them.
I The Renaissance brought about a revolution in the
position of women. Banning with a few, its leaven
spread gradually through widening circles over the land.
The aristocratic view of history is no longer in keeping
lyGOOgIC
THE EVOLUTION OF WOMAN 125
with modern ideas, but it is hard to think in terms of the
past without undue attention to the great, or fail to dis-
cern in them necessary factors in human progress. Be-
fore the Sixteenth Century, the lives of women apart
from a few of exalted station was well-nigh anony-
mous. Some like Margaret of Richmond, or Edward
IV's sister the Duchess of Burgundy, rising from the void
around them, owed their prominence to birth or to
exceptional circumstances. A Dame Juliana Bemers
was little more than the isolated example of a prioress
with a knowledge of French and a taste for books. The
immense majority of women even of high estate remained
inconspicuous and unknown.
During the Sixteenth Century, the cause of women
suddenly found support as unconscious as it was unex-
pected through circumstances of entirely different order.
The excess of individualism first manfested in thet
swollen powers of the crown, brought other surprising \
reactions. The disparaging view of women grew silent as
soon as their cause became inseparable from royalty.
Judgment ceased as it approached the throne, and the
awe inspired by majesty allowed prejudices of sex to be
quickly overcome. When England, France, and Scodand
were governed by women, it was impossible to speak of
them as inferiors, and Knox discovered r^retfully that
it was necessary to recant to Elizabeth for his invective
against the sex uttered when Mary's rule had kept him
in unwelcome exile. The women then seated on the |
throne, unconsciously and unintentionally helped to I
prepare the way for the improved condition of theirl
humbler sisters.
The example of feminine rule, which was not unknown
during the Middle Ages, would in itself have been in-
sufficient had not the ground been prepared by other
means. The new spirit of the Renaissance favoured this
through education. The great changes which took place
in the life and importance of women after the accesuon
lyGOOgIC
126 TUDOR IDEALS
of Henry VIII, were due less to that prince's uxorious
tastes than to the spirit of cultivation emulated from the
Valois Court. In this connection the king's personal
proclivities cannot easily be dismissed. Amid the strug>
gle for success through royal favour, everyone realized
that the great reason for the divorce had been Katharine's
personal unattractiveness compared with the French
educated Anne Boleyn. The latter without pedantic
learning possessed an easy familiarity with tetters ac-
quired at the French Court, where she had known
Clement Marot and Berquin. Such accomplishments
helped to enthrall a monarch who like all the Tudors,
responded to every form of learning. Dissolute and>
grasping as was the temper of the English Court, a new
standard of grace and cultivation had fortunately been
introduced in place of the uncouthness of former days. Su-
perior refinements were now expected from women, and
Ann of Cleves found to her cost, that ignorance of music
and of languages were among the reasons which made her
meet with so little favour in the king's eyes.
At the court national prejudices yielded before the
example set from above. In this sense the royal taste
. reflected in those around the throne, was instrumental
I in favouring the education of women. Their emanci-
Ipation which began by the importance they assumed in
court life, was to spread gradually over the land. The
evolution of womanhood by education toward freedom
was far more important than the mere revelation of
the classics which were only the instruments to bring
this about. Of greater significance than the accom-
plishments of such learned creatures as Ann Cheke,
or the Latin verse written by Protector Somerset's daugh-
ters, was the fact that in this new conception of life in-
troduced by the Renaissance, the education of women
formed an essential part. That such ideas at first, hardly
extended beyond the court and the higher reaches of
the social structure, does not detract from the immense
lyGooglci
THE EVOLUTION OF WOMAN 137
importance of the movement which was one side in the
liberation of human personality.
The growth of these ideas was aided by a national tra-
dition of feminine freedom characteristic of Northern
lands. Foreigners were struck by the greater liberty of
Englishwomen compared with their Continental sisters.
Erasmus' account of his welcome in an English home
requires no repetition. When Italian travellers won-
dered at the lack of jealousy on the part of British hus-
bands, it is likely that they gave a more malicious in-
terpretation to domestic relations than was warranted
by the facts. The English nature is never long success-
ful in disguising itself and was, doubtless, tolerant where
it found no cause for a suspicion it did not feel.
The absence in England of a less rigid discipline of
life than existed on the Continent, made women react
more unevenly to the new ideas. Innovations were not
confined to book-lore. In Queen Mary's reign the liberty
of Englishwomen scandalized the Spanish ladies who ac-
companied their husbands to England, and had been
accustomed to the staidness of their own bigoted court.
The Duchess of Alba after a single experience would
not show herself again, while other Spanish ladies re-
fused to be presented because of the alleged evil con-
versation of Englishwomen.*
New ideas were not confined to educational doctrine.
Among the upper classes, who had always been accus-l
tomed to greater freedom, a feeling of independence inj
thought and conduct grew up among women. A slack-
ening of parental and marital discipline conduced to
more liberty. Women of the higher classes became ac-
customed to thinking and acting for themselves. The
new woman of the day, full of the feeling of her own per-
sonality, aped men in games and in attire, and a puri-
tan moralist could blame her for not blushing to wear
doublets and jerkins so that her very sex became a mat-
ter of doubt.*
lyGOOgIC
128 TUDOR IDEALS
The development of refinement in any community
arises mainly from the influence of women exercised
in urban intercourse. But the manners of the Six-
teenth Century in England were derived from the
rough traditions of feudal and country life. The age
was not refined in any later sense of the woM.
Elizabeth spat on a courtier, and invited Marshal Biron
and his suite to assist at her toilet, where through the
palace windows she showed him the head of Essex srill
on the Tower.' Modern writers unable to shake off the
stamp of the genteel, stand aghast at the coarseness of
the age, when they do not detect in this the sign of its
virility. Women in England had not yet realized that
their influence would grow in measure with the refine-
ment they were able to impose on their surroundings.
Then, as now, social extremes acted differently and
the great mass was little aware of what actually took
place in higher circles. Holinshed described the court
ladies passing their time reading history and the Scrip-
tures, while the younger ones occupied themselves with
music and spinning. Harrison depicts their pastimes
in much the same way and draws a picture of the palace
which resembles a school.^ But Harrison frankly says
that he had hardly dared to peep at the royal gates, and
Holinshed was a poor country parson. Both drew an
ideal image of what they wished to believe life to be in
the royal proximity, which might satisfy the growing
thirst for information on the part of the reading classes.
So artificial a picture corresponded but little with re-
ality. The life of women fighting for success, for power,
or the grarificarion of vanity, was perhaps much the
same in the Sixteenth Century as in other ages. Ambi-
tion and jealousy, love, hate, and greed, have always
been the mainsprings of human action. The in-
fluence of the time lay in the spirit of the Renaissance
weaving its web of learning across life and framing action
amid a pedantism which became a second nature. When
lyGOOgIC
THE EVOLUTION OF WOMAN 129
Mary Stuart at the age of thirteen recited a Latin ora-
tion before the French Court, in which she defended
the right of women to be versed in letters and the lib-
eral arts,' when Elizabeth retired to her study to read a
Greek orator, they unconsciously were obeying the new
spirit of the age. Woman is always the conservative
sex. But in the atmosphere of the court, household cares
were less exacting, and the close neighbourhood of the sexes
brought these together on a nearer level of cultivation.
A reading class was growing whose roots in the palace
expanded beyond its walls to leaven the upper reaches
of English life. Lyly was the discoverer of this circlel
and of the influence women were then beginning tol
exercise. He urged them to read while fondling their
lap dogs, and declared that he would prefer to see his
book "lie shut in a ladies casket than open in a scholar's
study." His themes of passionless love and preciosity,
were welcomed by a feminine audience in quest for re-
finement, who found in Lyly what they could not dis-
cern in Shakespeare. The literature of the drawing!
room began with his novels. '
His Eupheuism with all its absurdity created a fern- 1
inine audience. A wide circle of interest had been awak-
ened and women henceforth occupied themselves in-
creasingly with cultivated activities. The Countess
of Pembroke's poetic inspiration is indifferent, but her
friendship with men of letters left her the nearest English
equivalent to a Mat^aret of Navarre, or a Vittoria Co-
lonna. The great lady of the Renaissance could make her
household a court, and rule over the affection of poets
as her subjects.' A new importance was attached to
women which Fynes Moryson with patriotic intention
described as prompted by motives of noble mind to give
honour to weakness.'" The growth of education and con-
sequently of personality conduced to this result. Even
the middle classes were responding more and more to such
ideas. Mrs. Locke, the wife of a London shopkeeper, was
lyGOOgIC
m
TUDOR IDEALS
to become the confident of John Knox's most intimate
thoughts. Stubbes could praise his own wife as seldom
without the Bible or a good book in her hands." Could
we penetrate through the anonymous zone of life we
would find the women of the age increasingly alert to the
need for cultivation.
-J
t: Go Ogle
VI. THE SHUFFLING OF CLASSES
Caste distinctions in the Middle Ages were never so
rigidly observed as to completely arrest the transition
from one class to another. But the feudal system and
the social conditions resulting from this were little con-
ducive to such penetration. Where it occurred, it was
always sufficiently gradual not to upset the existing
structure by any too sudden dilution, while those who
rose beyond their origin, tended at once to assume the
traits and prejudices of the class into which they were
absorbed without altering its complexion.
In England the continuance of feudal privilege noi
longer in relation to the needs of the community, hadl
culminated in the civil wars of the Fifteenth Century. I
War is invariably succeeded by economic disturbances
which arise from the readjustment of conditions. The
novelty of those which took place in the Sixteenth Cen-
tury, lay in the fact that as soon as the land was no longer
held under feudal tenure, the principles of economic in-
dividualism with their selfish reactions came into play.
The weakening of the feudal nobility by the Wars of
the Roses and their impoverishment had caused the dis-
persion of many estates which were bought by enriched
city merchants. This was no novelty ' save on the scale
with which it then took place. But while the feudal ideal
of the soil had been one which entailed military obliga-j
tions of service, the Tudor policy tended to break awayl
from this.
Economic laws assert themselves when not held
S.restraint by other circumstances, and as soon as lam
fould be regarded solely for itself, the feeling that
was a marketable commodity induced the applicatit
lyGOOgIC
TUDOR IDEALS
tim/ T
of more profitable methods of cultivattdir This process
from Henry VII's time went on through the Sixteenth
Century in spite of many efforts made to prevent it. So
late as the end of Elizabeth's ragn, Francis Bacon could
introduce a bill against enclosures and the conrersion
of arable land into pasture, and Leicester was accused
of making parks and chases out of his tenants' lands.'
The immediate consequences of such agricultural changes
were the wholesale evictions which took place and the
impoverishment of the yeoman class. Latimer, him-
self the son of a yeoman farmer, lamented their former "■
prosperity, deploring the fact that since this decay
they were no longer able as before to dower their daugh-
ters and send their sons to the University.*
! After the barons and the yeomen, who followed them
in adversity, as once they had followed them in battle,
the new border found a third victim. The monks had
long been regarded with jealousy because of thetr vast
wealth. "Nigh half the substance of the realm is in their
possession. "* The charges of leading immoral lives
and devouring the labour of the poor by thetr tithes/
rested often on the flimsiest foundarion, but the feeling
aroused against them was an expression of the discon-
tent of the time.
I The restless forces of the age which could ill account
Ifor the widespread poverty, fastened the blame for this
Ion the friars. The fact that certain of these had enclosed
their land and evicted their tenants lent fuel to this
\ agitation. The monks were rich and unpopular. The
two facts were associated and the king, greedy by na-
ture, and quick to interpret popular feeling, saw in this
the opportunity further to enrich himself and attach to
the throne the courtiers and lawyers who with spoils
derived from the friars would find their interests in-
creasingly identified with the crown.
IThe dissolution of the monasteries broke up stagnant
pools of conservatism, inherited from earlier ages, but such
lyGOOgIC
THE SHUFFLING OF CLASSES 133
measures added greatly to the social unrest. In the past,
the monks had been the means of charitable assistance
to the poor and with the confiscation of their foundations,
the greatest agency of relief was stopped while the friars
themselves became chaises on the community. Men
like Simon Fish and Brynklow, who had been foremost
in denouncing them, ended by lamenting the spoliation
of the church lands which had not turned out as they
had hoped.
One by one the ancient pillars of the medieval state
had crumbled. Men whose lives and comforts seemed
assured, were suddenly cast as beggars in the street
looking in vain for an explanation of their downfall. A
vast transformation was taking place in the social order.
Deeper and more powerful than the authority of the
crown which tried vainly to stem the tide while uncon-
sciously lashing it, the entire medieval fabrit of col-
lective aggregates, internally connected by interest and
obligation, was now giving way before the new individ-
ualist conception of Renaissance life.
Although the Tudor crown had itself been the first
great triumph of individualism, as soon as it was firmly
established, it sought to retard changes of which it had
been the beneficiary but the significance of which it
only dimly perceived. The progress of the transforma-
tion, with its violent reactions, could not be stayed.
It was only later in the century that the same forces who
had benefited by the changes now sought to divert these
into fresh channels of conservatism superficially reminis-
cent of the ancient order.
Destruction told only half the tale. Since the acces-
sion of the Tudors, and even before, a new class of ricli/'
were stepping into the breaches made in the social struc-
ture. The readjustment was taking place, less by design
and intention, than by the effect of rude forces let loose
in a disintegrated fabric where they were working out
their own reactions. The sudden clash of vigorous new
lyGOOgIC
.1
134 TUDOR IDEALS
elements with a dying order, had been to throw the
social system into the melting pot and leave the new
alloys to the rough and uncontrolled workings of nat-
ural laws. Below the crown, which was the first force
to acquire stability, all other elements in the national life
were in a semi-fluid state with vestiges of organization
derived from former times but whose strength was no
longer powerful enough to curb or to protect thdr mem-
bers.
The old structure had broken down, and its constituent
parts were impoverished and humbled. Usually the
class closest to the soil is the one which changes the
least, but in England in the early Sixteenth Century,
even this bedrock of the nation swayed. A contemp-
orary wrote:
"The poor man he was tossed
I mean the labouring man
I mean the husbandman
I mean the ploughman
All these men go to wrack
That are the body and the stay
Of your Grace's realm alway." •
I The social disorder depicted by More, Sir William
Forrest,' and others was due to causes far deeper than
the thinkers of the time could fathom. They could ill
account for the sudden departure from the compara-
tively static conditions of the Middle Ages. Impressed
by the decay of what had been most stable, and by the
prevalence of misery, two feelings were aroused. The
first was one of indignation and resentment against
those members of the community who had dared to
profit by this disorder in order to rise. An unknown
rhymester could write:
"For they that of late did sup
Out of an ashen cup
lyGOOgIC
THE SHUFFLING OF CLASSES
Are wonderfully sprung up
That nought were worth of late
With casting counters and their pen
These are the upstart gentlemen
These are they that devour
All the goods of the poor." *
Amid the chaos of life which replaced what had
formerly been an orderly structure, the newly rich ap-
peared, "steplords" as Latimer dubs them, who treated
land like merchandise and food as a commodity for
speculation.' Disorder and order went side by side,
but the disorder was due to the fall of the ancient feudal
pyramid bringing down the destruction of the classes
who had before been identified with the welfare of the
state, while order was gradually being evolved by men
who had trampled ruthlessly on whatever stood in their
path.
The rigidity of class structure was replaced by com- |
petirion, and the diffusion of education increased this I
feeling of unrest by giving a sharper edge to class hatred. *
Those coming to the front by education and the acquisi-
tion of wealth, had not had time to adjust their new pos-
sessions to the national structure. The evolution then in
process was too rapid for any apparent order to be ap-
plied to movements which under the surface were quite
as constructive as they were destructive. To many the
superficial evidence seemed a sign of d^eneracy. The
early writers like Simon Fish inveighed against the use of
money which they thought would have been better spent
in charity, diverted toward the gratification of pleasure,
and superfluous building taking the place of necessary
lodging for laboring men.'" The Puritans reviled extrav-
agance, and even Harrison who usually saw only good
everywhere thought that the spread of luxury was sap-
ping the nation's manhood. The real economic transfor-
lyGOOglC
136 TUDOR IDEALS
matioti going on passed almost unnoticed, and it was sup-
posed that wealth was being drained from the land to pay
for trifles. Luxury as proof of the superfluous permitted
by the material enrichment of life, escaped their observa-
tion.
The growth of luxury came especially through the ex-
tension of new commercial interests. The enormous
increase of wealth aided the increase of extravagance.
Everywhere new houses were being buiit of dimen-
sions and beauty hitherto unknown. The poorest bar-
on's house was better than that of the princes of old,
wrote Harrison. The German, Hentzner, noted that
even the farmers' beds were covered with tapestry. Costly
furniture formerly used only by the great had descended
to "inferior artificers" and many farmers now garnished
their cupboards with plate, their beds with tapestry and
silk hangings, and their tables with fine linen. "A mean
man will have a house meet for a prince" wrote
Starkey. . . . "Every gentleman wants to live as well
as before lived only princes and lords.""
The hatred of wealth is always most apparent when
democratic conditions are near, and the significance of
the levelling tendencies imposed by Tudor policy lay
in the national preparation for democracy. The an-
tecedents of this feeling can be traced to earlier days.
The little known history of medieval socialism is full
of levelling doctrines. Lydgate dwells on the churl's ha-
tred of the gentleman and deplored the fact that beg-
gars rose in station till they despised their neighbours,"
while Occleve regretted the age when a lord could be
told by his dress.
Moralists are conservative by nature, for their sym-
pathies attach themselves to the better side of a real
or mythical past, and they are rarely able to project
their imagination beyond the evil discerned in the present.
The commonest form of criticism was the censure of
those who aimed to rise above their station of life and
lyGOOgIC
THE SHUFFLING OF CLASSES 137
most suggestions for reform lay in advocating a return to/
former conditions which were associated with the golden'
age. The wish for social betterment was denounced
and blame cast on merchants who purchased land with
their new wealth and tried to make ladies of their daugh-
ters by marrying them to some noble ward in chancery."
In his essay on the state, Edward VI with the conser-
vatism of youth, commented on the changes and deplored
the wish of the lower classes to rise. He wrote scorn-
fully of the artificers who want to be county gentlemen
and justices of the peace.'* His own goal was for stabil-
ity and his anger expended itself against a tide he was
powerless to stem. Political and religious causes (iirther
contributed to the social unrest and rendered more diffi-
cult attempts to build afresh the foundations of order.
After the persecution and exile of Catholics under Edward,
with Mary came the persecution and exile of Protes-
tants. In the words of a contemporary — gentlemen,
knights, lords, countesses, duchesses, after the wreck of
all their wealth fled as exiles abroad. Such convulsions
were among the causes which kept open gaps in the
social structure until filled by the infusion of new blood.
An intermixture of class went on, ade by side with the
growth of new caste distinctions which were formed
again on the ruins of the old.
Paradoxically, the disintegration of rigid social HnesI
provoked a deeper class feeling than any that had be- 1
fore existed. The uncertainty of barriers, the exist-
ence of a new twilight zone, undefined rights, the ex-
tension of which varied according to the angle of vision,
provoked an ill humour which simmered through the cen-
tury. When Surrey, imbued with the feudal idea that
the lives of the commoners were of indifferent interest,
ruthlessly suppressed the prenrices' rising against for-
rigners in 1517, he fortified the burgher's hatred of the
nobiHty.
It is among the difficulties of history that often the
lyGOOgIC
138 TUDOR IDEALS
most widespread ideas have not found literary ex-
pression. The feeling of hostility entertained by the lower
classes was but little phrased. We consider more the
religious side of Puritanism than its political, although
the reason for Elizabeth's wish to suppress the Puritan
pamphleteers may be contained in the remark attrib-
uted to Lord Hertford, that "as they shoot at Bishops
now so they will do at the nobility if they be suffered."
Later the "inbred malice in the vulgar against the no-
bility" was among the reasons which made Burleigh
so anxious for a peace with Spain.
The same hatred and jealousy from above and below
was directed against those who sought to rise above
their station. Philip Stubbes, although a Puritan, re-
sented the external confusion which made it so very hard
to know who is a gentleman and who is not.*^ Ascham
remarked on the desire of men to do what they were un-
fit for, and the wish of some to be at Court who were bet-
ter fitted to be teamsters." The critics so prone to de-
nounce the ostentation of the new rich, did not realize
that the latter were the unconscious heralds of economic
individualism which replacing feudalism was henceforth
to become the foundation of English industrial life.
By preparing the moral freedom of the individual, the
Sixteenth Century destroyed the former rigidity of class.
Out of the counring house and the lawyer's study, came
a new set of men who brought city life into relation with
the entire community. The nomenclature of the old
social fabric still went on as if nothing had changed,
but its spirit was different. Henceforth in spite of
the attempt at reaction under Elizabeth, and the growth
of a new conservatism which arose while the turmoil of
swift change subsided, there was never the same rigid
caste line in England as in other European countries.
The upward striving of all classes coming from this
individualism, went on intensified by the fresh openings
g^ven to human activity. The husbandman, it was said.
lyGOOgIC
THE SHUFFLING OF CLASSES 139
aimed to be a yeoman, the yeoman a gentleman, the
gentleman a knight, the knight a lord." The efforts to|
preserve class distinctions ended in a gradual struggtej
which was silently conducted. It' finished in a kind on
perpetual compromise characteristic of English life,)
which preserved the form of class distinction without^
narrowness, and allowed the free passage from one levell
to the other of whoever showed the necessary quali-1
fications. The movement was facilitated by the absence
of other conscious standards on the part of those rising who
were only too anxious to rid themselves of their ante-
cedents and be merged without further ado into the
class of their adoption.
The old edifice was erected anew and its construc-
tive material renovated till it acquired a strength and a
resiliency which existed in no other country in Europe.
While in England the individual was freed by gradual
process from the relics of feudal restraint, the more
rigid structure existing in France required the guil-
lotine to accomplish the same result. Freedom of the in-l
dividual helped to lay the foundations for the economicl
prosperity on which the greatness of England was later I
to be built.
lyGOOgIC
VII. TRADITIONAL SURVIVALS
There is always the tendency to restrict the evolution
of history within a certain mental convenience and make
the ideas of an age shape themselves to fit formulas.
Especially before a watershed like the Renaissance it
becomes disconcerting to have to reckon with currents
which refuse to follow their expected course. One is
easily disposed to accept at an exaggerated value the
claims of a discoverer, that life has changed with the
revelation of new ideas or that human nature alters
with the fashion of its arts.
The fact that the Renaissance substituted its own al-
phabet for the Gothic did not mean that a fresh soul
had 6IIed mankind. Instincts and ambitions remain
the same in all ages however differently expressed.
In England, where novelty is never enthusiastically
embraced, there was no sudden break with the past
but a somewhat spasmodic transition. The new movement
took a downward extensive direction. Side by side with
it, at times blending, at others parallel, continued the
traditions, derived from earlier centuries. Young ideas
and old instincts tc^ether formed the essential unity of
English life. In eras of swift change history is not un-
like a mountain torrent whose waters foam when they
dash against boulders, only to compose themselves after
they have settled in the broad river bed. But the water,
whether white with froth, or grey with melted snow, or
blue in its deep calm, flows always in the same stream.
Interwoven with the vast changes which came over
English life during the reign of the Tudors, lingered in-
numerable survivals of the past which in part were tra-
ditional, in part instinctive reversions, in part even de-
liberate archaisms Unking Sixteenth Century England
lyGOOgIC
TRADITIONAL SURVIVALS 141
with all that had gone before. Political power had been
able to hew for itself a new path, scholarship, and letters
felt free to copy, emulate, or conceive their works in a
newly borrowed dress. Everywhere a wider horizon ex-
tended the human outlook, yet circumstances and con-
ditions existed where the vision turned to the past in-
stead of to the future, and where even a calculating
policy intentionally tried to identify itself with what had
gone before.
Superficially at least the return of order under the
Tudors and the growth of historical consciousness were
conditions which made for a reversion to the old. The
shaping of ideals and courtly practices tended to follow
the medieval example. The Middle Ages were to the
Renaissance what the Eighteenth Century has been to
us, and only gradually the new era was able to form its
-'"^^own standards of distinction. Though as a political instiy^[_ . I
,..,.:^||ytution feudalism was dead, there was a deliberate re-J^T--^
— turn to many of its ideals. Long after the Middle Ages
were over, ideas derived from these retained their in-
fluence. Romances of chivalry became most popular
when medieval chivalry existed no more, and the courtly
practices before the eyes of those who sought to create
a glamour for the age, were those of the Fourteenth
Century. Amid such tendencies new life was given to
the idea of knighthood and a deliberate attempt was
made to formulate its duties.
In England the Renaissance brought no sharp transition.
No sudden break divided the two ages but only a gradual
infiltration and extension of elements and fashions blend-
ing into the old. Neither was the old completely dis-
carded nor the new completely assumed. This was even
truer in Scotland which as a more primitive land, pre-
served traditions after these had become archaic in the
southern kingdom.
In a period of swift change it may become politic to
link ont^f to a venerable past rather than to inaugurate
lyGOOgIC
TUDOR IDEALS
.1;-''^ a more uncertain future. To discard the appearance as
"■' ^ well as the spirit of whatever has gone before, is gratui-
V V. ^ tously to increase the surfaces of fnction and add to hu-
rXj V man difficulties. The founder of the Tudor dynasty was
^ ^ himself to give the first example of this poHcy which con-
■^ \ sciously, or unconsciously, was followed by ail who then
^*' ■** established themselves upon the land. The silent pres-
V A^ure of environment contributed to hasten this result,
^ <2 ^""^ to efface initial differences. Though the structure of
^.^' iS feudal privileges and duties had disappeared, the new
K^'^class graduaHy nierging with whatever remained of the
-^ ""pHTl^tincUvcN tended to revert to the unwritten body
of usages'andpractices, handed down from former days
and which stood outside the field of direct legislation.
In the great social transformation which then took
place, the commonly accepted view has been derived
pardy from the study of many futile laws, partly from
the writings of social reformers who, impressed by
the misery of the thousands then rendered homeless,
saw only evil effects. Great changes are like epidemics
of disease which alarm by their ravages while the degree
of immunity they gradually develop passes unobserved.
A vast revolution with immediate reactions of suffer-
ing had undoubtedly taken place. Isolated from all other
circumstances, nothing could seem more convincing, or
more completely a break from the past than the trans-
ference of wealth from one class of the community to
another disposed to use the land as a commercial enter-
prise. Every student of the age has pointed this out and
drawn the conclusions. Yet what was the result? Ir-
respective of their antecedents or of the methods which
secured for them their ill-gotten gains, this new class
once settled on the land, found it advantageous to con-
nect their life with that of an earlier tradition. Apart
from their beginnings, or original intentions, the result
was the same even when it took more than a generation
to effect the change. The power of the unwritten body
lyGOOgIC
TRADITIONAL SURVIVALS 143
of usages and customs handed down from former days,
was greater than the power of the law or even the power
of greed. Shylock became a country squire whose son
could denounce usurers., ^ir Thomas Kitson "mercer
of London " built Hengrave Hall in Suffolk, one of the
finest residences of the time. A new conservatism grew
with a new propertied class, safely, anchored on the
land, aware of its new responsibilities, connecting itself
with the system it had replaced, and even forging its
pedigrees to identify itself with what had gone before.
How far this desire to revert to former traditions
could go, may be judged from the case of Sir Christo-
pher Hatton, who had built a large house at Holdenby.
He himself was in London and two years passed without
his even visiting the place. Yet conforming to ancient
practices of hospitality he gave orders that everyone, rich
or poor, who passed there should receive entertainment.
In this sense the new England of the Tudors grafted
itself on the past, adopted it as its ancestry, and carried
on its traditions. The castle became a manor, the Ab-
bey a country house. Security reigned. The ancient
turbulence disappeared, while sources of gain other than
violence were tapped. For the first time England dis-
covered the real enjoyment of life. But the essential
structure of existence remained as a medieval inheritance.
Though feudal chaises and privilege disappeared, the
; prestige of the land survived from former times to attract
' the rich from the cities. By whatever road one travelled
to success, the goal was always the country home sur-
rounded by its acres of field and wood, and a respectful
tenantry to give the homage of consideration to its
owner.
The Renaissance was not merely the discovery of
the ancient world, it was also the discovery of a human
consciousness which could pick its models where it chose
and accordingly found many of these in medieval ex-
ample. Where hardly an act of chivalry stands out
lyGOOgIC
144 TUDOR IDEALS
amid the dark annals of the Fifteenth Century, in Tudor
times there came a revival of knightly practices. Caxton
translating "The Order of Chivalry" from the French,
lamented the disrepute into which knightly usages had
then fallen. The old romances were no more read and
many knights no longer possessed their armour. He
wished to see the .tourney revived and offered advice as
to how this should be done.' When he printed Malory's •
" King Arthur," he expressed the hope that his readers
might learn therein noble acts of chivalry and gentle vir-
tuous deeds. Many in the new age instinctively conscious ..^_^^
/"of a ferment below, whose trend theycould not understand, ^N
f reverted to their own past with the wish to find in it a____^
V guide for conduct.
The new movement disguised its own Renaissance
origins for a past it had apparently discarded. The in-
stitution of chivalry was revived to self-deceive another
generation into believing that it represented continuity
with an unbroken past.
The tourney offered the brilliant side of this revival as
a distraction which gave courtiers like Mountjoy the
chance to distinguish themselves in their sovereigns' eyes,
or for others to indulge their taste for the trappings of
luxurious armour. There was also a revived code of
knightly honour which in a contemporary form drew its
inspiration from the example of earlier times. King
James IV expressed the wish to fight Surrey for the
possession of Berwick, just as later when Somerset in-
vaded Scotland, Lord Huntley offered to fight the Eng-
lish "for the whole quarrel, twenty to twenty, ten to ten,
or else himself alone" with the English commander.*
Old survivals from former customs were blended into
novel policies. New circumstances brought out a rever-
sion to old practices. Instinctively man fell back on
these to find the precedents for his action. Intellec-
tually he might seek his inspiration from classical antiq-
uity. This was in the main urban and peaceful, for
lyGOOgIC
TRADITIONAL SURVIVALS 145
the Romans nurtured no warlike philosophy. To Eng-
lishmen there was of necessity something bookish about
the Ancient World. The Middle Ages with the cult of
the horse and the lance, and the courtly reverence for
woman, was closer to their taste. Even the travelled
courder and scholar like Sidney who tried to introduce
classical meters into English, confessed his "own bar-
barousness" and felt pride, in that he had never heard
the old song of Percy and Douglas without being stirred
to tears.
The difficulty in understanding the age lies largely in the
inability to separate the swirl of the currents amid the
confusion of its eddies. Medievalism in the Sixteenth
Century never became a consciously organized move-
ment with an interior evolurion, but occurred in the re-
actions, deliberate and instinctive, toward earlier forms
and practices of life. In part these came from the natural
distaste of those who foresaw an excessive danger in
individualism, and who wished to revert to the supposed
stability of a past whose deficiencies were glossed over
when not ignored. Such ideas took the form of a politi-
cal reaction which hoped to find a rigid social structure
in the state and saw with dismay any different order.
Thomas More for instance, in a medieval spirit, put
great limitarions on personal liberty in Utopia where no
one was allowed to wander beyond his own precinct
without written permission of the prince and where
punishment led at once to bondage.
The traditions handed down by long habits of thought
could not easily be shaken off and haunted the minds of
those who tried to express new ideas without being able
to discard the old. A writer like Starkey, in spite of his
Renaissance cultivation, could not rid himself of the in-
heritance of such ideas in criticising the evils of the time
which he attributed to the lack of harmony within the
state. "The temporality grudgeth against the spiritu-
ality, the commons against the nobles and subjects against
lyGOOgIC
146 TUDOR IDEALS
their rulers; one hath envy at another, one beareth
malice against another, one complaineth of another."*
The moral nature of Englishmen turned back natu-
rally toward their own medieval annals. The Renais-
sance education was generally a veneer which only ex-
ceptionally touched their inner soul. In another sense,
the revival of medievalism in the Sixteenth Century
marked the real triumph of the Renaissance. Where the
Fifteenth Century concerned only with the struggle of
the moment had forgotten its own origins, the discovery
of man and his growing self-consciousness caused many by
instinct to shape ideas toward their immediate antece-
dents with which they tried to identify tastes and ideals.
Different minds went back to former times in quest of
different things.
In the early years of the Sixteenth Century the exotic
nature of the new poetry caused an instinctive fondness
to linger for the medieval form which even in decay still
seemed national. Certain poets trained in the old school
could never accommodate their art to the new meters.
Stephen Hawes although living at the court of Henry
VIII was really a belated medievalist, for whom Plato
was a famous clerk," and whose main interest in the
classics came through reading into them an allegorical
heralding of Christianity.* Medieval didacticism was
not easily shaken off. Its idea of life as a preparation
for death, and of man haunted by sin, survived to dim
the new light. Such a play as "Everyman" breathes
the Middle Ages. An ethical bias was injected into
letters and even translations were never published with-
out an alleged lofty moral purpose.
As was later the case with the French romantics certain
poets were revolutionary in form but reactionary in their
ideas, while others like Skelton were the contrary. In
Scotland, where Gawain Douglas used his translation of
Virgil to advance his belief in spiritual chivalry. Sir David
Lyndsay remained as medievally didactic in intention as
lyGOOgIC
TRADITIONAL SURVIVALS 147
he was progressive in his views. He spared neither " King,
court, counselors, nobility, nor others of inferior estate," *
in his wish to point out abuses. Using the form of a me-
dieval satirist he interprets the Reformation and asks if
the Pope's raising of armies is "fraternal charity" not
certainly learned at Christ's school.' If he were king,
he wrote, not one penny should any longer be sent to
Rome. All monasteries would be suppressed and their
revenues appropriated by the state.'
Lyndsay linked the Middle Ages and Renaissance in a
strange confusion hardened with the cement of the Ref-
ormation. In Scotland, the medieval spirit long pre-
dominated. Hcnryson is enough of the Middle Ages
to make Orpheus find Julius Csesar, Pilate, and Nero in
Hades,* and see in poetry no other purpose than that of
moral allegory. Kennedy expounds the cloister doc-
trine that the world is meant only to deceive and pride
is the net with which to entangle mankind into sin.'
Henryson had believed that the popularity of Chaucer
and Lydgate in preference to religious books was sin-
ful." The Chaucerian revival in the Sixteenth Century
offered the best proof of native taste reverting to the tra-
ditions of the Middle Ages. The conrinual use of alle-
gory came as a medieval inheritance. A soldier like
Gascoigne imitates Piers Plowman, and his "Steel Glas"
is as archaic in its form as in its wish to return to the
feudal structure of society. He contrasted the old-
fashioned steel mirror which stood for the plain man-
ners of medieval England with the Venetian glass which
typified the corruption of the day. He denounced the
social unrest and the dissatisfaction which made every
one seek to alter their condition though the only remedy
he saw was one of reversion to the happy condirions sup-
posedly prevailing in feudal life. Nothing is more signifi-
cant of how dead was the knowledge of the Middle Ages
than such literary return to its ideals which made Stephen
Gosson deplore the decay of English virtue.
lyGOOgIC
m
148 TUDOR IDEALS
Reminders of medievalism fringed life with a living
force. Their fashion caused a literary hack like Ger-
vase Markham to reedit the Book of St. Albans with its
record of chivalry, and its enumeration 6f the articles of
gentry. Once more these were catalogued for the bene-
fit of readers desiring to learn the highroad to distinc-
tion by setting before them models of deportment.
Moral lessons were wrapped in the dress of a bygone age.
The extension of life, the opening of new horizons for
adventure, the security of England and the insecurity
of the world, were as many conditions which made for
the new knight errantry of Grenville and of Sidney.
Spenser, most learned of poets, steeped in classical letters,
yet felt that the ideal which touched him most deeply
was that of the Middle Ages. His imagination reverted
to an era, dead but with still living recollections, to
find a setting for the new chivalry of his time.
The ideal of knightly honour was closest to his heart.
The Platonism of his hymns, and the classical learning
garnered at the University, were outward trappings. The
goal before his vision was one of arms and he tried to
modernize the chivalry of the Middle Ages in order to
reconcile it with the practices of the day. The pursuit of
honour was to be grafted on to the new patriotic idea
and to accompany the wish for cultivation.
"Abroad in arms, at home in studious kind
Who seeks with painful toil shall honour stKHiest find."
In lines of unsurpassed beauty he has expressed this
ideal of knightly honour;
"In woods, in waves, in wars, she wonts to dwell
And will be found with peril and with pain
Ne can the man that moulds in idle cell
Unto her happy mansion attain;
Before her gate high God did sweat ordain."
(F.Q.n.Il!.4o,x,.).
lyGOOgIC I
TRADITIONAL SURVIVALS 149
Spenser's medievalism was both deliberate and instinc-
tive. In his mind he felt that he was going back to the
hearthstone of national tradition and throwing off Greece
and Rome for England. His complicated allegory has
cast its shadow on a talent of which medievalism was
only a single side. Intentional though this was, it
showed the strain running through the national genius
and around which ancient virtues in their modern dress
could group themselves. The political not the moral
and social aspects of the Middle Ages were dead — nor
even their intellectual ideas. These had survived and
entered into the permanent fibre of the race ready to
show their vitality by being able to transform themselves
to the needs of the age-
Different minds went back to the Middle Ages in
search of different things. The landowner, the reformer,
the soldier, found in them their models. Instinctively
they reverted to real or supposed precedents and called
on these to modify the pressure from the currents of
other ideas. The result was an extraordinary medley
of old and new, sometimes associated, sometimes- in op-
position, yet almost always conveying the feeling of dis-
harmony and compromise which is characteristic of the
Sixteenth Century in England. The age was neither
wholly medieval nor wholly Renaissance, but the reac-
tions between both caused the birth of its genius.
Reminders of feudalism could still be seen in Ireland
where the chief of a sept rode, while a gentleman of his
own name, able to speak good Latin, ran barefooted by
his stirrup. Englishmen, astonished by this sight, thought
they had passed into another era without realizing that
the spirit of the Middle Ages breathed in themselves.
lyGOOgIC
VIII. THE SCXIAL FABRIC
pHiLUPE DE CoMiNEs found a divine justice in the
fact that the English nobles whose ancestors had pil-
laged and devastated France should have finished by
killing each other.' The destruction of the feudal nobility
in the Wars of the Roses has, however, been exaggerated.
The heads of great families perished, but there were
many who survived- Of more importance than actual
statistics was the fact that the baronage had been so
weakened by death and impoverishment, as no longer
to be able to oppose successfully the growth of new ele-
ments in the state. The power of turbulent nobles was
ended and they were henceforth to be dominated by the
crown. No longer able to present a unity bound to-
gether by interests of class and blood, their relative im-
portance was to decay.
The Duke of Buckingham had daily entertained five
hundred retainers at his board. When he mounted the
scaffold, it was thought that the last of the great nobles
had died. But even he possessed only the outward trap-
pings of his station without the power to save even his
innocence from an unjust death. The history of the no-
bles in the Sixteenth Century is misleading, for on the
surface little had changed except the infusion of new blood.
So late as the middle of the century many households
still kept their trains of worthless hangers-on.*
The Duke of Norfolk in Elizabeth's reign could
boast that his revenues were hardly less than those of
the Kingdom of Scotland, and that when on his tennis
court at Norwich he felt the equal of kings.' The Fif-
teenth Century was not so far away nor the hotbed of
conspiracy in Rome, or Madrid so distant, as to remove
the hope of independent action on the part of some
lyGOOgIC
THE SOCIAL FABRIC 151
nobles. This betrayed itself in many an intrigue and
awakened ambition. Old ideas are deep-rooted even
after they have lost their force. The medieval theory
of the prince as a kind of superior noble who derived
his strength from the nobility, was not unconnected with
the plan to marry Leicester to the queen. Elizabeth,
scenting this danger, lent countenance to the belief that
royalty was a blood apart and declared that she was not
so unmindful of her Majesty as to prefer her servant.*
Such ideas did not fit into the Tudor theory. Their
own origin was too recent and their succession too inse-
cure, to take risks from those who by their pretensions
could approach the throne.
The theory of government could not conceive of any
structure other than that of the pyramid with its crowned
apex. Tudor policy was to destroy the power of the no-
bility and then reconstruct it on another basis. The
idea of an aristocracy remained unchanged, but its po-
litical power became absorbed by the throne.
The crown encouraged such a structure because tend-
ing to make easier the task of government. Henry VII
copying the French practice where titles of nobility
were sold, insisted that every freeholder with a land
rental of forty pounds should receive knighthood and
pay fees for the same.' This order was so often repeated
that frequent attempts must have been made to evade it.
The king tried artificially to sustain an aristocratic
fabric by enforcing primogeniture, and, later, Thomas
Cromwell enacted a bill to punish attempts to circum-
vent this. It was argued that Englishmen, who were
rough by nature, required a ruling class preserved for
them by the laws of inheritance, for if great estates were
divided, decay would then set in and the nobility be
levelled to the commons.' Moreover there was real pride
in the fact that the English nobility had preserved their
territorial foundation, and contemporary opinion con-
trasted it in this respect to the disadvantage of the French.
lyGOOgIC
IS2 TUDOR IDEALS
A new titled class was formed mostly from men
of small beginnings. Humanity in its class lines follows
a simple evolution, and the much reviled new nobility
quickly enough assimilated a caste tradition without the
dangerous feudal grip. As soon as a territorial founda-
tion from the plunder of the monasteries had Been
given to these novel creations, a class was manufac-
tured which, save for the spirit of feudal militarism,
was to resemble the ancient nobility. Where descent
was wanting, genealogies were invented and the mercer
great-grandfather of Anne Boleyn could be represented
as being of noble Norman blood, just as later Cecil,
who was of obscure origin, found genealo^sts ready
enough to give him an ancient lineage.
Historians as a rule take insufHcient cognizance of
the fact that blood plays less part in creating a type than
does environment and the maintenance of tradition as the
framework of conduct. Evolution affects character just
as it does every other manifestation of life. The tradi-
tion of a peerage existed in England and though with-
out leaders, reduced in numbers, and impoverished, it
was revived and in the end strengthened by the very peo-
ple it most despised. The survivors of the old nobility
who scoffed at the newcomers failed to realize that they
were to be saved by these and that the vigor again given
to the aristocracy was due to this infusion in what was
henceforth to become a class and not a caste.
The feeling of security in Elizabeth's reign and the
growth of wealth made for conservative reaction. The
pressure from below aroused a social resistance above
which was encouraged by the crown. The latter no
longer dreading the political encroachments of the great
now looked to these to help resist the encroachments
of the small. Hence Bacon as a defender of the exist-
ing order, admits that though in other ages noblemen
had been greater, yet that their rights and dignities had
never been better preserved than under Q"cen EUz-
lyGOOglC
THE SOCIAL FABRIC 153
abeth who gave them privileges and precedence in Par-
liament, court and country.'
The aristocratic idea became fortified amid the evolu-
tion of conditions different from those for which it had
originally been intended. The diffusion of wealth and of
education produced a far greater upward striving with
a corresponding desire for the ornamental sides of life.
The asumption of arms, with or without authority, was
one manifestation of this.* Amid the disentegration of
classes, there was a notable attempt on the part of many
of humble origin to claim heraldic privilege and to parade
as gentry. The abuse of titles was regarded as a plague
infesting the world.' The very College of Heralds was
accused of forging pedigrees, and when early in the next
century the common hangman, Gregory Brandon, was
granted the right to bear arms the scandal became noto-
rious.
Apart from the ludicrous side of such practices, the
fact remained that the growth of the nation in population,
wealth, and influence, brought to the fore new sources
of honour which required adjustment to the more primi-
tive structure. The essence of desire for aristocratic dis-
tinction was unchanged, but its practice conformed better I
to the necessities of life. Contemporary writers would '
discuss learnedly about the "slothful tolerance" which
allowed those sons of churls who had received an academic
degree to bear arms,'" and could sneer at gentlemen being
made "good cheap" in England. The public r^arded
as gentlemen, whoever lived without manual labour,
and even the critics had to acknowledge that the system
possessed its merits, for the prince lost nothing by it,
while the new gentry was required to display a "more
manly courage and tokens of better education, higher
stomach and bountifuller liberality."" The extension
of such standards to the professions is also significant.
Lawyers were never behindhand in exalting the study
of the law. There was more doubt about doctors, yet
lyGOOgIC
154 TUDOR IDEALS
soon medicine became more highly esteemed than before^
and writers at^ed that its knowledge merited the bear-
ing of arms. Those who excelled in poetry and in music
were also thought to deserve coat armour.^*
The curious use of armourial bearings as a kind of cur-
rency of gentry, was the result of having to find some
rec<^nized pattern of distinction for the growing niunbers
of men who, no longer attached to the soil, or possessed
of landed estates, were now to be found in every walk of
life.
The social effect of the Sixteenth Century had been to
increase enormously the number of those who without
direct root or property connection demanded the consid-
eration of gentle birth. In this sense all soldiers of fortune
claimed to be gentlemen, while members of more primitive
communities likewise arrogated the title. Spenser re-
marked that the designation of gentlemen in Ireland was
as universal as with the Welsh and resulted in making the
Irish scorn work and manual labour."
The underlying idea of social distinctions was to at-
tempt to adjust the fluctuating and expanding con-
ditions of English life to a primitive structure derived
from the Middle Ages. The traditional basis of military
origin was preserved. Arms made the gentleman, and a
soldier however basely bom was so considered if he lived
without reproach." ,
The efforts of the crown were directed to preserving a
rough balance between ideas old and new. The fount of
honour could conceive of no other fabric of society than
that of an orderly, ascending progression attended by
honorific distinctions. Its repressive task had ceased as
soon as it no longer feared the menace to its power and
henceforth its policy with respect to class distinctions
became conservative.
Both as a source of revenue and in the interest of sta-
bility the crown aided the movement to r^iilarize the
social structure and distributed the outward trappings
lyGOOgIC
THE SOCIAL FABRIC 155
which have come down to our own day with but littJe
change. By so doing it responded to the ideas of the
nation, who would have Httle understood any other plan.
The prevailing opinion was deeply aristocratic, and sharp
lines both of theory and of practice were drawn between
the social strata. The influence of the upper classes was
still immense and the belief existed, that in peace as in war,
the nobility were to act as the nation's leaders and by
their example make their rule welcome."^ The people
will follow them " for truly such as the noblemen be such
will the people be."" Many fried therefore to impress on
the upper classes the feeling of their responsibility. As-
cham declared that they were the "makers and marrers
of all men's manners within the realm.""
The social fabric had to take cognizance of a more com-
plex situation than before and its groupings followed
broader lines. "The noble name of Knight may compre-
hend both Duke, Earl, Lord, Knight, squire, yea every gen-
tleman and every gentle born," wrote Gascoigne.'* Indi-
vidualism brought by the Renaissance met in opposition to
the old conventional structure but refused to demean itself,
and the attempt to create further distinctions at court be-
tween nobles and gentry resulted in failure. When Lord
Oxford insulted Philip Sidney at the tennis court before the
French envoy, the latter challenged him to a duel. The
queen always ready to support caste distinctions (as
when she rebuked Sir Thomas Copley for describing him-
self in a letter written in Latin to the King of Spain as
"nobilis Anglus,"") expostulated with Sidney on the
difference between earls and gentlemen, remarking that
the tatter's disr^ard of the nobility taught the peasant
to insult both. Sidney retorted that the difference in
degree between gentlemen only affected their precedence
and cited Henry VIII who had protected the gentry
against the oppression of the great.
Amid confused tendencies there existed a veritable bor-
derland between old and new where the vigorous remains
lyGOOgIC
IS6 TUDOR IDEALS
of old prejudices fought novel ideas. Sidney himself
whose father had suffered because of inferiority in his
degrees of heraldry accounted it his "chiefest honour to
be a Dudley" and defended his uncle Leicester against
scurrilous attacks which accused him of every crime,
by dwelling on the antiquity of his lineage although this
was disputed by Sussex who dubbed Leicester an upstart
with only two ancestors both of whom had been traitors.
The second half of the Sixteenth Century in England
marked a distinct conservative reaction over the disorder
of the first half. The flood gates which had then been
open were now closed once more and no longer conduced
to those sudden and abrupt changes which raised fortune's
favourites to the highest eminence. The growth and dif-
fusion of wealth and education had become more gradual.
After the wholesale expropriations, a new landed conser-
vatism was built afresh which has continued until our
own day. The social structure tended increasingly to
shape itself into a kind of boundary wall high, yet by no
means inaccessible, which encompassed private life. It
remained a citadel of prestige rather than of power. The
transitions between classes were no longer sharp in their
suddenness but sloughed into gradual lines of demarcation.
Elspecially significant was the rise of a wealthy middle
class who remained in the towns. The letter writer
Chamberlain was of this type, and became an ancestor of
the man about town, cultivated and witty, who in the
Eighteenth Century frequented coffee houses. Indepen-
dent in his own position he had little wish to rise or to de-
mean himself by homage to the great. Writing to a friend
who asked him to call on a peer he said, "Howsoever
well they use me, yet methinks still I am not of mine
element when I am among Lords, and I am of Rabelais'
mind that they look big comme un Milord d'Angleterre." "
lyGoogIc *
IX. THE THEORY OF ARISTOCRACY
Characteristic of the Renaissance desire to obtain
deeper insight into life were the theories devised to ex-
plain every sphere of human activity.
Among the principal questions discussed was the in-
tellectual justification for aristocracy. It had puzzled
the Greeks and occupied the Italians, and more than
ever amid the shifting currents of the age it came up
before English minds. In practice the Tudors had wel-
comed ability from whatever level it rose. The appar-
ent haphazardness of such a system disturbed scholars
who, trained amid less practical standards of judgment,
thought themselves philosophers because they read Aris-
totle. Their ideas carried little weight with those in
power but they are of interest by their wish to associate
authority with virtue, and create a real as well as an
etymological analogy. The identification of nobility with
spiritual qualities so often expressed in the Renaissance
was a return to the moral standards of antiquity.
Aristotle's maxim that virtue and riches are the origin
of nobility had been the starting point for all medieval
writers, who did not attempt to harmonize the feudal
practice around them with the ideal structure of their
ideas. Chaucer quoted Dante in his "Wife of Bath,"
that whereas ancestors can bequeath possessions, with-
out virtuous living "even a Duke or an Earl is but a
churl. "' Opinion in this was consistent. The " Romaunt
of the Rose" said that no one is gentle by his lineage atone
but whoso that is virtuous. Without gentle birth one
may still be a gentleman, by acting as one.*
The Scottish poets like Gawain Douglas and Henryson
whose culture was medieval, also gave prominence to
lyGOOgIC
iS8 TUDOR IDEALS
virtue as the essence of nobility.' The notorious Dudley,
in his "Tree of Commonwealth" placed nobility on a
pinnacle of virtue that has never been surpassed.* Even
so original a thinker as More had nothing new to say
on this subject. In his life of Pico della Mtrandola he
repeats the commonplaces about nobility of ancestors
conferring none on their descendants, those who decline
from the standard set being all the more reprehensible.
Amid much Sixteenth Century writing on this subject
most authors merely reiterate the current platitudes of
their predecessors.
In his CortegianOf Castiglione' had discerned many
practical reasons for approaching this question from an-
other side and with the realism of his nation took into
account popular prejudices. The same was true of the
Portuguese humanist Osorius, whose work on nobility
was also translated into English. After stating that there
was no apparent reason why noble blood should have
preference, since it signified neither greater courage,
virtue, nor ability, he remarked that nobility might
seem vain, if one did not examine the structure of nature
and realize that there is no real equality. Certain traits
predominate in every nation and stock, and it was
natural for those descended of a noble line to preserve
virtues which brought glory to their house. The essence
of nobility is nothing else than this spark grafted in some
family of renown. In spite of the seeming injustice of
government by a few, in the end it worked to the state's
advantage.*
"From God only proceedeth all honour," wrote Sir
Thomas Elyot, perhaps the first Englishman to bestow
serious attention on this subject.' He advanced a fan-
tastic theory about the origin of nobility. In the ban-
ning when all things were equal and shared in common,
property and dignity had been allotted by mutual consent
to the meritorious. Like so many others, he analyzed
the essence of nobility to find it partly in lineage. Where
lyGOOgIC
THE THEORY OF ARISTOCRACY 159
virtue is joined to great possessions or dignities, nobil-
ity is most evident, and he repeats the old image of it
being like an ancient robe, which worn by each succes-
sive owner required continual repair. Nobility was also
the external praise and honour by which certain actions
were surrounded rather than the actions in themselves.
He was not so sure whether virtue is the deed or the hon-
our attached to it. Like Montesquieu, he realized that
honour was the vital principle of an aristocracy, and
Elyot's avowed purpose was to strengthen this element
in the state. The intention of his writing was to pre-
pare a future governing class selecting them preferably
from the upper classes, both because they were less
subject to corruption on account of their wealth, and
because virtue in a gentleman is commonly coupled
with courtesy and mildness. The three qualities he re-
marked, inherent in the gentleman were affability, placa-
bility, and mercy which is the greatest of them all.
Among Elyot's contemporaries several concerned them-
selves with this subject. Bishop Fisher tries to analyze
nobility into its different origins of blood, manners, na-
ture, and marriage." Bishop Poynet, with more daring,
discerned nobility in tyrannicide and deeds actuated by
patriotism." Among the popular writers, Crowley after
expressing the opinion that the gentleman had been ap-
pointed by God to rule the common people, stated a
grievance of the time in remarking that he should try
not to have deer parks."
It is useless to repeat the hackneyed ideas of writers
like Lawrence Humphrey and Ascham. The latter
so vigorous in relating personal impressions, had little
new to say in developing a theory which he borrowed
mainly from the ancients." Another writer, Blundevile,
repeats as an old saying the maxim that the Prince may
make a nobleman but not a gentleman.'* A swarm of
writers in the latter years of the century found little to
add to the fact that virtuous qualities pertained to the
lyGOOgIC
TUDOR IDEALS
gentleman " and any derogation from these caused a lapse
in nobility.
Some reverted frankly to the Middle Ages for the pedi-
gree of their ideas. Gervase Markham, refashioning Dame
Juliana Berners, discovers the essence of caste in the
angelic hierarchy and the origin of churls in Cain's action,
while Christ was an "absolute gendeman" entitled by
Mary to wear coat armour." Amid much nonsense a
definite ideal of the gentleman was then created. "Who-
soever wrongeth tn any sort the meanest that is, cannot
in any equity merit the name of gentleman" wrote
Geoffrey Fenton " with words which still deserve quota-
tion.
Neither Leigh, Feme, nor Bossewell, all of whom dis-
cussed the question, have anything new to say. The latter
expressed a current Renaissance view, though hardly the
historical one, when he says that arms were first given to
those who achieved excellence in anything "some lor their
studies, some by feats of arms, some for their great posses-
sions or long continuance of their blood."" Learning and
arms are at the basts of nobility "and in my poor conceit
hardly deserveth he any title of honour or gentility that
doth not take pleasure in the one or the other. " So wrote
Segar " who lamented the overfondness of most English
gentlemen for sport and pleasure. By war many men of
low degree have attained great dignity and fame, for the
profession of arms is "the very source, mother, and
foundation of nobility.""
Later writers like Peacham confirm such opinions,
while others like H. Baldwin and Ludowick Bryskett stp~
proached the subject from the moral side only to reach
similar conclusions."
With ideas borrowed from Aristotle and percolaring
through Italian and French sources, all tried to create
an ideal automaton of virtues which they could dub the
pattern of a gentleman. The conclusion reached was in
the nature of a compromise between the theoretical
lyGOOgl
c i
THE THEORY OF ARISTOCRACY i6i
sides of excellence derived from blood as in the opinion
of the vulgar^ or by virtue which was that of philos-
ophers.
The limitations in an age's ideals can rarely be charged
to any one nation. It was the merit of Sixteenth Century
England to have borrowed freely from the ideas which
were then the common fund of European civilization,
though the influence of foreign writers is at times diffi-
cult to detect. Certainly the Renaissance theory inclined
toward a natural aristocracy open to talent which con-
cerned itself little with abstract ideas either of virtue or
of lineage. The whimsical fancies of a Cornelius Agrippa
asserted that the commons take their beginning in Abel,
the nobles in Cain, and proved with more historical method
that no kingdom in tne world but began with murder,
cruelty, and slaughter as the first arts of nobiUty. If one
could not obtain nobility through murder (in war) he ad-
vised its purchase with money and if this is impossible
let the applicant be a royal parasite, or marry a discarded
mistress or illegitimate child of a prince.'" The diversity
of ideas born in different nations helped to form that
strange hodgepodge of culture in which the Elizabethans
flourished. Culled from every direction, all traced their
origin back to antiquity, and all, as they passed through
different skans, were reunited in the genius of Eliza-
bethan poetry.
The literary men of the age had little to add to the stock
beliefs. Some with deep religious feeling like Bishop Bale
found the perfection of nobility in true faith, others re-
peated the ancient commonplaces. Gascoigne could re-
iterate
"The greater birth the greater glory sure
If deeds maintain their ancestors' degree."
(Steel Glas, p. 75)
and a poetaster like Barnaby Goc^e reverted to the old
adage :
lyGOOgIC
TUDOR IDEALS
"IF their natures gentle be
Though binh be never so base
Of gentlemen (for mete it is)
They ought have name and place."
(3d Eclogue-)
Spenser trying in vain to revive the dead chivalry had
sufficient penetration to realize the futility of his efforts.
In spite of his own middle class birth he wished to exalt
the excellence of blood which reveals itself no matter how
deformed. He commends those who seek by right de-
serts, to attain the true type of nobility and do not call
on vain titles obtained from distant ancestors. Yet with
all his reverence for waning traditions he was conscious of
how remote was the practice of nobility from its theory." '
In "All's Well That Ends Well" die king in seeking
to induce the Count of Roussillon to marry the poor
physician's daughter comments on the original identity
of blood and of how dignities without virtue are but
"dropsical honour." Lyly with his predilections for the
court yet takes no different view. Though gentle ac-
tions bespeak gentle blood,** it ts virtue and not the
descent of birth but of conditions that makes gentle-
men,'* While high position requires high virtue, no
writer brought out more emphaticaJly than Lyly the moral
aspects of dignities in the state even if most of his ideas
are derived from Plutarch. He helped to discover the
"gentleman" to the Elizabethan world. It was no longer
the nobleman or knight of whom he spoke nor even the
"freeman" as Sidney called himself. With Lyly we have
the modern designation of the word. Though the associ-
ation between position and virtue did not always corre-
spond} the ideal he held was high.
lyGOOgIC J
X. THE PREPARATION FOR LIFE
The conventional labelling of periods in history is apt
to mislead by the su^estion of abrupt change. Tradi-
tions of ignorance inherited from the Middle Ages, long
survived the supposed advent of an age of enlighten-
ment. Side by side with the new, and interwoven with
it in every proportion, ran old ideas to carry on the
continuity of British life.
The habits of intellectual sloth had become so ingrained
that the significance of the new secular revelation passed
almost unnoticed during its early stages, as something
which concerned only scholars. The diffusion of Re-
naissance culture was destined to suffer in England be-
cause of this association. Instead of being accepted on
its merits, as a channel of civilization, the fact that it
was mainly sponsored by men who diverted it to theo-
logical studies made it seem of indifferent interest save to
an elect few.
The ignorance of many of the upper classes continued
as before to disgrace the country, llie historian of Henry
VIII has remarked that of the three greatest noblemen of
that reign the Duke of Buckingham, the Duke of Suffolk,
and the Marquis of Dorset, it would be hard to say who
was the most illiterate.* In spite of the example set by
the royal family, the importance of education was not
widely appreciated. So late as the reign of Eldward VI,
there were peers who could not write their own names,
and Roger Ascham alluded with sadness to the many
ashamed to be thought learned.* Even much later, in-
sulHcient attention was given to children's education,'
and the poor instruction of English youth became no-
torious abroad. Leicester, who judged as a man of the
world, complained of their tendency to brawl among
lyGOOgIC
i64 TUDOR IDEALS
themselves, and wrote that " the cockney kind of bringing
up at this day of young men " would later be r^;retted.*
Fortunately a different picture can as well be drawn,
and in this contrast between boorish ignorance and the
most gifted cultivation lay an extraordinary feature of the
time. The new ideas spread through circles which wi-
dened as they descended. Naunton writing of EUiza-
beth's youth could say that "letters about this time -
and somewhat before began to be of esteem and in fashion.*
Until this process of dilution produced a superficial level,
the anomaly existed of crass ignorance, and brilliant cul-
tivation, with many intermediate blends, all going to
form a society ill fused in its culture and in its sympa-
thies. The confused expression which marked the first
half of the Sixteenth Century in England was due in no
small measure to the clash of ideas emanating from the
neighbourhood of such differently trained elements.
North of the Alps a certain medieval crabbedness sur-
vived which caused studies to be judged not on thdr
merits but because of moral qualities." Englishmen,
unlike the great Italians of the Renaissance, did not
give themselves over to the pure cultivation of the mind
nor consciously tried to shape themselves as perfect
all around men. The British ideal was at once more
practical and more deeply tinged with religious feeling
emanating from a clerical origin, which had never been
completely secularized and remained a litde in awe lest
classical studies should detract from the moral element
at the basis of education.
Hie goal in view aimed to prepare men for practical
life rather than as scholars. At its best it created a well-
rounded type of man who after receiving the impress of
classical culture in his youth, was never able, altogether^
to forget this. Other circumstances brought out the age's
brilliancy. Music was a common accomplishment and
the writing of verse a courtly tradition. These two sifts
combined with the taste for arms, and a service which
n,gti7ccT:G00glc J
THE PREPARATION FOR LIFE 165
a>mported public duties, produced a type of unusua! at-
tainments whose gifts partly natural, partly developedj
came through other circumstances than the conscious de-
sire for perfection. To this extent individualism in Eng-
land was a less artificial phenemenon than in Italy. Per-
haps the existence of a great national ideal larger than
any personality, restrained Englishmen within a more
modest and yet more useful sphere.
An educational method was elaborated almost from the
cradle. The elemental requirement of all Renaissance in-
struction was a thorough classical training. Children were
to be taught to speak pure Latin before they were seven,
at which age they were expected to begin Greek and music.
Sir Thomas Elyot in advocating these ideas was not ex-
ceptional. William Kempe ui^ed that serious instruction
should begin at five, when the boy's mind was to be
trained to eloquence by his tutor. He was to study Eng-
lish grammar and devote his spare time to reading until
he was seven. After that the scheme of education pro-
posed Latin conversation and composition, and later
Greek and Hebrew until the age of twelve when the higher
education of rhetoric and logic might b^in.' At sixteen
the boy should be ready for service to his country. Rc-
colomini's "Moral Institution" which was widely read
in England portrayed the perfect child, and outlined for
him a scheme of education, which at fourteen expected
a boy to be proficient in music, poetry, and drawing.
Great attention was also given to sport which fitted in
with the former knightly type of education. Italian wri-
ters had dwelt on such training as forming the balance
between mind and body, and Englishmen welcomed this
side of training. It was proper for gentlemen to take
pleasure in such exercises, ride well, run fair at the tilt,
play at all weapons, and scholars were urged to maintain
their health of body.'
The numerous educational treatises of the age invariably
impress one by the high pressure of instruction. The tend-
lyGOOglC
i66 TUDOR IDEALS
ency was to hasten the preparation of youth and to make
life begin earlier. Wolsey had been a bachelor of arts at
fifteen, Sidney at fourteen went to Oxford. The rapid
changes of the time, and its lack of orderly progression,
caused youth to be brought into earlier contact with life
and preparation to be correspondingly anticipated. The
methods of approaching life were overcharged without
due rect^nition of what was to follow.
Beyond the study of the classics and the training in
weapons, there was little agreement of purpose. A few
far seeing minds were painfully conscious of the incom-
pleteness of the system which stopped short at the very
threshold of life. Educational plans were a favourite pas-
time and the attempt was at times made in these to try
to catch up with the rapid progress of national evolu-
tion. The most interesting of all was Humphrey Gilbert's
plan of an academy to tit scholars for action where those
not interested in the dead tongues could learn the modern.
Appreciating the wide gulf which existed between theory
and life, he formulated an educational ideal to prepare
youth in the widest sense for national service. Differing
from Oxford and Cambridge where only learning was
sought, they were to study "matters of action meet for
present practices both of peace and war."' The purpose
of the institution was to offer a suitable practical education
to men of family, "and then younger brothers may eat
grass if they cannot achieve to excel. " The programme
of studies embraced civil government and finances, martial
exercises, navigation, and surgery. This was the real
humanist ideal applied to life with its vision of a new
England venturing into distant lands. Gilbert had real-
ized the promise of what the colonies were to mean for
British expansion, but his suggestion met with no re-
sponse from the most parsimonious of rulers.
The theoretical basis of the Renaissance preparation
for life was essentially aristocratic. The educational ideal
did not concern itself with the leavening of the masses
lyGOOgIC
THE PREPARATION FOR LIFE 167
but with the cultivation of the few. Its preparation
bore in mind h^h station in life and nearly always the-
service of the state as an ultimate goal. To this extent it
is unfortunate that it took so little ct^izance of the
real genius of the age. The wells of national energy were
often sunk lower beneath its notice, and affected levels
that educators did not attempt to reach.
lyGOOgIC
XI. THE ART OF WAR
The practice of warfare which develojied out of the
feudal system was not conducive to enterprises of pro-
tracted scope. The medieval structure had been adapted
to a somewhat primitive society and was suited to easy
territorial mobilization which enlisted personal incentive
so long as conquest offered the hope of booty. Eng-
lishmen learned to their cost, that it was less efficacious
in fighting a protracted defensive war in France, yet no
far-reaching plan of collective effort replaced the feudal
idea. The Tudor crown which had been strong enough
to destroy the feudal power, was unprepared to substi-
tute itself on a large scale in making any direct claim on
its subjects' service in war. Its early efforts tended to
rely for normal exigencies on elements that it could al-
ways control. Henry VII's creation of a bodyguard in
which he followed continental example was due to this
idea. Foreign mercenaries were popular because better
disciplined than the English and more directly respon-
sive to the crown.
The use of mercenaries as an institution had first been
developed in Renaissance Italy where the transformation
of war was toward a professional art requiring a high degree
of skill, and more ihtellectual than physical virtues. In
England the exploits of Martin Swart's "merrie men"
left an enduring impression of what military discipline
could accomplish with only slight resources. But two
circumstances deterred the English crown from pur-
suing any consistent military policy. The absence of
any real national foreign danger until toward the end of
the Sixteenth Century, and the growing current of individ-
ualism, were not conducive to such preparation. In ad-
dition the recollection of former victories in France acted
lyGOOgIC
THE ART OF WAR 169
detrimentally. Men with pride in their traditions are
loath to cast aside what has made their success, and the
memory of how the long bow had won Cr^cy and Poitiers
caused England to lag far behind the Continent in the art
of war.
The crown with broader vision occasionally tried to
remedy the spirit of national self-sufficiency, which had
resulted in such humiliating disasters as the first expedi-
tion to Spain. Henry VIII welcomed Italian military
captains and engineers who brought with them a new
knowledge of tactics, of ordnance, and of fortifications,
hardly known north of the Alps. Later under Protector
Somerset, the successes obtained over the Scotch at
Pinkie came from the superior discipline of Italian,
Spanish, and Albanian mercenaries. The employment of
foreigners was, however, a temporary expedient resorted
to by the government and dropped as soon as the emer-
gency had passed. The nation's interest in military prep-
aration was desultory and spasmodic. Later Queen
Elizabeth was greatly blamed for the avaricious short-
sightedness which caused her to neglect the national
defences. Leicester at Tilbury was a commander with-
out an army, white English powder maga^nes remained
empty.
The test of military policy came in placing the coun-
try in a state of preparedness. The defence of the realm
by the entire nation was always an ideal held in mind,' but
it was one which was never lived up to. From time to
time enrolments took place* but there was litde con-
tinuity of policy, or clear-sighted idea of what was neces-
sary.
Archery was encouraged as the traditional English
weapon and the bow was r^arded as "the defence and
wall of our country."' The proverbial courage of the
English was attributed by the French to the use of the
long bow which was only serviceable at close quarters.*
With certain exceptions for clergy and magistrates all
lyGOOgIC
I70 TUDOR IDEALS
Englishmen were supposed to practice archery, and Hol-
inshed remarked with sanguine overstatement, that every
parish kept its supply of armour and munition ready at
an hour's notice, and that there was no village in England
so poor that it could not equip three or four soldiers.
The facts of the matter were that military preparation
was notoriously deficient, and that no serious effort was
made to overcome this, while in military science England
remained singularly backward. The theoretical aspects
of war and the practical aspects of military policy were
hardly known. The framework of an army did not exist,
with the result seen in the wretched ending of many mil-
itary ventures.
In the conduct of such military operations as were
undertaken, there was extraordinary diversity, due to
lack of capacity and lack of discipline. In Dorset's ex-
pedition to Spain in 1512 the men were guilty of coward-
ice and indiscipline and finally sailed back to England
without orders. At Ancrum Moor an English army
fled, just as a Scottish army had done at Solway Moss,
and in Surrey's campaign at Boulogne the troops bolted.
Such discreditable incidents occur repeatedly. At the
si^e of Havre, where Mary had expected that her
resistance would enormously benefit Philip of Spain, the
forts were taken by the French almost without loss. "It
is a source of shame to the English," wrote Chantonnay.
The lack of discipline was often lamented and at the
siege of Guines in 1558 when Lord Grey refused to sur-
render, his soldiers threatened to fling him over the walls.*
Worst of all, at Alost in 1583, the English garrison not
only surrendered disgracefully but turning traitors joined
the Spaniards under Parma. The same thing happened
later when William Stanley and Rowland Yorke, both of
whom had been in Leicester's intimacy, went over to the
enemy. An experienced soldier like Sir John Norris felt
alarm at the landing of a single Spanish regiment of r^-
ulars in a land so unprepared as England.*
lyGOOgIC
THE ART OF WAR 171
It is perfectly possible to reconcile such facts with the
spirit of heroism associated with the age. During the first
half of the century, the traditions of an army were inexist-
ent. The nation had cast off its feudal structure without
adequately replacing this. The old organization which had
been suited to the wants of a primitive community, pre-
served certain standards for which others had not yet been
substituted. When the need arose for a military operation,
the men collected usually in helter-skelter fashion, felt
neither discipline, duty nor the obligations of service.
Leicester in the Low Countries was greatly troubled by the
unruliness of his subordinates and the perpetual bickerings
among these.^
Old traditions had lapsed while new ones were still un-
born, and the result became apparent in many deplorable
occurrences. Except for the display of courage, profes-
sional standards of honour were hardly existent. Cap-
tains were accused of leading their companies into battle
to "enrich themselves by their dead pays."' The army
was a prey to rascals who swindled their own men. Sir
Henry Knyvett denounced the officers " who hadmade mer-
chandise of their places" and Spenser had the same tale
to tell.' Discreditable incidents occurred as a natural re-
sult among the soldiery. In Flanders, they pillaged the
Dutch peasants whom they were supposed to protect,and
who had to organize in self-defence against them. In Ire-
land the disaster at Armagh, where the soldiers fled, aban-
doning arms and standards, was the result of such a sys-
tem.
Yet in spite of lamentable occurrences there were
acts unsurpassed for high courage. Leicester, always criti-
cal of his men, relates such an incident at Zutphen, which
though he lived a hundred years he could never forget."
The adventurous spirit of the race came to the. fore in
many an exploit abroad. If the genius of the age was un-
able to attain concerted effort it furnished brilliant individ-
ual example of skill and courage. Gentlemen volunteers
lyGOOgIC
172 TUDOR IDEALS
became the fashion, and there was hardly a foreign cam-
paign whether in Spain, or in Hungary, where Ejiglishmen
were not found. They were conspicuous for their valour
among the Huguenots in France, and when at the Valois
Court complaints were made about this the English Am-
bassador retorted that although the Suhan and France
were allied, yet Frenchmen fought against the Turk with-
out the king being able to prevent this."
Camden enumerates with pride those English gentle-
men who feeling that they were born to arms and not to
idleness had joined the Imperial forces to fight the Sultan."
Such warfare incited the spirit of adventure at the same
time as it produced a new cosmopolitanism acquired on
the battlefields and in the camps of Europe. Toward the
end of Elizabeth's reign, England was full of soldiers re-
turned from the wars, and London of captains raising
companies for service abroad."
The imagination of the people was stirred by thar tales.
Among the reasons which made for the extreme individ-
ualism of the English genius in the Sixteenth Century,
was the fact that its contact with life other than its own,
came from so many diverse sources. The different ele-
ments in European civilization reacting on each other,
were brought into close touch through war as much as
through peace. Such interchange and multiple impres-
sion came about by the odd jumble of forces in the field.
The barriers between states were levelled in contests where
religion was the cry and adventure the goal. Continen-
tal warfare drew Englishmen from their shell, and made
them partisans of causes which brought them into famili-
arity with a very different life from what they had known.
In such struggles while English participation was never
on a scale sufficient to mould the nation it yet leavened
and enriched it. The infusion of French, Spanish, and
Italian words entering undigested into the language,
came from inconspicuous soldiers rather than from schol-
ars and courtiers. A ferment was brought in by the
lyGOOgIC
THE ART OF WAR 173
former to give a new wealth of experience to the monotony
of life.
For the first time the military career opened a fresh
field to the individual. There had been earlier examples
of Englishmen gaining distinction in quarrels not their
own, like the famous Sir John Hawkwood, but these were
rather isolated instances. The novelty of the Renais-
sance lay in the world lying open to the adventurer, and
of men shaking off the roots which bound them to their
homes. If England produced no great military leader
save perhaps Mountjoy, she brought forth plenty of
capable soldiers who profited elsewhere by their courage
and experience. The colonizing energy of Raleigh,
Smith, and Roger Williams, had gained experience on
the battlefields of Europe.
The career of arms attracted the adventurer of every
kind. "Every soldier being enrolled in the king's pay is
reputed a gentleman," Segar could quote approvingly
from Marshal Trivulzio.'* A soldier however basely born
if he had honourably followed the profession of arms
should be admitted in single combat to fight with other
gentlemen.
The military profession divorced from feudal or terri-
torial idea thus entered into English life. Depending
only on the free will of the individual it opened a career
for whoever was possessed of daring and ambition and
provided an honourable occupation for gentlemen. Phi-
losophers praised it as bringing out virtues of sacrifice
and devotion," while the double ideal of letters and arms
was illustrated in many men of that time, till it can be
regarded as characteristic of the Renaissance. Although
the state failed to create any large military policy, the
personal incentive from above spurred men to seek dis-
tincrion in war.
The success of the age never came from handling the
mass, but the individual, and the latter responded to the
new impulse in arms. Queen Elizabeth loved the soldier.
lyGOOgIC
174 TUDOR IDEALS
and her courtiers took this as an invitation to win honour
in the wars," The Netherlands were called the queen's
nurseries where reckless exposure became the fashion.
Thomas Churchyard, poet and soldier, writing to ask a
recommendation for service there could say, "The last
reward of a soldier is death; this do I desire as a man
that have made choice though unworthy of that profes-
sion. I covet to die like a soldier and a true subject." "
To this fashion of exposure competent observers attrib-
uted the absence of good generals. The scientific con-
ception of warfare as it was understood in Italy and
Spain was hardly known in England. Those who showed
promise were cut off in their prime by reckless gallantry.
"In our countries we can scarcely find a veteran com-
mander and this is owing simply to our recklessness.
The Spaniards alone are free from this species of mad-
ness and therefore they possess generals of the utmost
experience in the art of war who effect far more by genius
than by strength, " wrote Languet to Sidney." Yet the
latter's sacrifice of his life was not to be in vain. The
anonymous translator of Aristotle's "Politics" could write
of Philip Sidney, in his dedication as one "who in the
last age of the declining and degenerating world would
have honourably emulated those ancient worthies. "
lyGOOgIC
PART in
IDEALS OF LIFE AND THOUGHT
lyGOOgIC
lyGOOgIC
I. IDEALS IN ENGLISH LIFE
Certain contemporary ideals may have exercised littleprac-
tical eflFect on life but they cannot be lightly dismissed
because of this. Apart from representing lone voices in
the wilderness, many of the ideas originally born in the
Sixteenth were to reappear in the Eighteenth Century.
The belief of Rousseau in the virtuous savage was al-
ready current in the Renaissance. In Starkey's curi-
ous dialogue Cardinal Pole is represented as arguing
against the idea of man's gradual rise to civil life in favour
of savages without "policy." Men in the forest away
from laws and regulations who there pursue virtue,
were nearer to the manner of life in the golden age when
man lived according to his natural dignity.'
One effect of the revival of antiquity was to make men
think once more in Platonic terms. In a Ufe of struggle
the mind turns toward dreams of a perfect world. Thomas
More, devout Christian though he was, in "Utopia"
abandons entirely the ascetic medieval ideal. The folk of
his fancy judge it "extreme madness to follow sharp and
painful virtue, and not only to banish the pleasure of
life, but also willingly to suffer grief without any hope of
profit thereof ensuing. " ' Felicity was to rest in honest
pleasure. The ideal world as represented by More, with
its sympathy for the poor, its indignation at injustice and
its wide tolerance, was more than a noble fancy.
In a period of such rapid change as marked the begin-
ning of the Sixteenth Century in England, character could
with difficulty develop in rigid moulds and Paulet's famous
epigram about the willow was typical of many who had
not the frankness to admit such pliability. Conditions
were too fluid to develop a fixed type or leave more than
lyGOOgIC
178 TUDOR IDEALS
a vague consciousness which grouped itself around the na-
tional growth. If exceptions like Fisher and More stand
out, the great majority of the nation in its various crises
waited to know who would be successful before taking
udes, though occasional disgust was felt at such "neu-
ters" as worse than the most arrant traitors.* Undue
caution and a lack of generosity and impulse vitiated
the character of many Englishmen in the first half of the
century. Men felt little at ease in that strange whirlpool
of ideas. With most of their early convictions sapped or
destroyed, there was small room for elevation of the mind.
Amid the rapid transition all former organized groupings
of authority had been profoundly affected. The struggle
had been too intense, and the wounds were still too raw for
a nobler plant to grow at once. The great mass groped in
blindness little able to explain the changes to themselves
and without more conscious purpose than to pursue the
normal activities of existence. Their imagination was
as yet unfired by anything more ennobling. The rude
discipline of the struggle for faith was still in its be-
ginning. The danger from Spain had not yet appeared.
The world beyond the seas was almost unknown.
Out of these three elements the future developed. In-
wardly, conditions settled gradually. Newly rich and
newly ennobled were absorbed by the land, and thdr chil-
dren and their grandchildren entered into its life in the
same way as those who had been attached to it for cen-
turies. But other ideals created in an age of chivalry
and feudalism were well-nigh dead, and a period of tran-
sition occurred before conditions were again ripe to develop
fresh beliefs. The new ones arose out of the circumstances
of the age. The edifices built by philosophers made but
little impression on the nation's mind, but the persecu-
tion of the faith responded to real necessities. As soon
as men believed that their souls were in danger, they be-
came ready to risk their lives and the same was true when
they felt their land to be in danger. The English charac-
lyGOOglC
IDEALS IN ENGLISH LIFE 179
ter is normally slow in its response, and slu^ish to arouse.
In the Sixteenth Century, it took longer to understand
the new conditions of life than did other European
nations. But once these had filtered into the race it re-
acted to them vigorously. Life was grouped around a pa-
triotism inspired by the fear of the land being in danger,
but embracing two widely different yet connected chan-
nels. The one of Protestantism which made England
a bulwark in the struggle against Rome, and Eliza-
beth the centre of the citadel, the other of adventure
which served a patriotic goal in the sense that it was
mainly directed against Spain, but which also grouped
around it the different virtues out of which the greatness
of England was to rise. The old caution gave way to a
new restlessness. English gentlemen embarked as pi-
rates for distant seas satisfied with the sanction that their
enterprise was against Spain. A new daring inspired
English soldiers and made them adventure into "many
dangerous and vain exploits."* Reckless courage be-
came the most prized virtue. Never was the transfor-
mation of a people more sudden.
The changes in national traits are among the most baf-
fling facts before historians. There is always the wish to
find a great current of unity inspiring a race from its earli-
est times. This rarely corresponds to truth. It is only
necessary to study the example of Ireland where, since
the Middle Ages, men of English blood exchanged their
English characteristics for Irish, and the conscious na-
tionalism of British policy failed before the realism of
life. National traits depend far moreon circumstances
and conditions than on blood. The English although
an insular people, never became a seafaring race until
events in the Sixteenth Century guided them to find
their future on the water.
In its conscious ideal the Sixteenth Century shook off
the religious mould of previous ages. It is odd to find
even a clerical writer like Starkey openly expressing a
lyGOOgIC
i8o TUDOR IDEALS
secular concqjtion of life. The perfect man, he wrote,
was he who did hisduty in spite of perils and of adversity.
Far more praiseworthy is such a man than one who out
of fear of danger seeks repose in a convent.* Monastic
seclusion was no longer an inspiration. The Ren^ssance
replaced such Christian ideals by those taken from an-
tiquity. The new moral training of education came from
Greece and Rome, although a cynic could then write "we
hold most of their vices but what suppressed their vices
and kept them in awe we have not."' Yet stoic phi-
losophy left a stamp of elevation on the liner minds of
the age, and Walsingham with a pagan ideal tn his soul
wrote that though a man achieve not honour by doing
worthy acts, yet he is happier than one that gets it with-
out desert.^
lyGOOgIC
II. DEMOCRATIC TENDENCIES
With fresh outlets for energy before the individual, the
first half of the Sixteenth Century was a period of too
rapid evolution to permit fixed conditions to be estab-
lished. Respect for convention ceases during a crisis.
In "The Tempest" the boatswain remarks on the waves'
indifference to the name of king, and reminds Gonzato
that though two princes were aboard, there was none he
loved better than himself. Times of rapid change favour
men from every class coming to the fore. There may
have been in this tittle that was, in itself, democratic
beyond the equality of opportunity, but it meant that the
race for success was open to all. In spite of subsequent
recessions it admitted a new principle which with the
spread of education reduced the divisions of caste.
An occasional effort toward agrarian communism had
existed In the Middle Ages, Inherited from primitive times.
The famous lines of John Ball —
" When Adam delved and Eve span,
who was then the gentleman" —
were heard on the occasion of every peasant rising. But
the people asserted themselves too spasmodically to ef-
fect a permanent Impression. Not till the Sixteenth
Century did classical cultivation awaken the memo-
ries of antiquity on the subject of human freedom. Eras-
mus in his Ante Polemus wrote of princes with fine con-
stitutional spirit, "What power and sovereignty soever
you have, you have it by the consent of the people. And
if I be not deceived, he that hath authority to give hath
authority to take away again."
The discovery of the lower classes was one of the ef-
fects of the Reformation. During the Middle Ages,
lyGOOgIC
i82 TUDOR IDEALS
peasants had hardly been considered worthy of notice.
With the growth of intellectual curiosity and the seed of
democratic ideas, the cultivated began to look below them.
Wolsey's dying advice to the king had been to dis-
trust the people.' Prior to the Eighteenth Century,
nearly alt political thought savours of such distrust. The
instability and fickleness of the mob was brought out else-
where than in Julius Cesar.* Expressions of democracy
were infrequent. Its force was still inarticulate and one
discerns its existence rather by the arguments employed
against it than by its own defence. Only an occasional
reformer like Brynklow could suggest as a practical plan
that lords and burgesses sit tc^ether in one house.*
A few favoured an ideal of communism though less vi-
olently in England than in Germany. It is remarkable
that this should have met with real sympathy from a
future Chancellor like More. No one has ever brought
out more forcibly the contrast between the over remuner-
ation of certain classes and the miserable condition ot
the workers.* His idea of the state with its socialized
activities is communistic and in certain respects far
more radical than modern doctrine. Full of sympathy
for the wretchedness of the working classes whose starva-
tion wages left them unable to save for th«r old age, he
felt the injustice of a condition which gave great re-
wards "to gentlemen as they call them" and none to the
real toilers, and denounced such a state as being one in
which the wealthy got together to defraud the poor under
the name of law. No modern socialist attacking property
could be more violent than this future Lord Chancellor
inveighing against the economic evils of his time.
The idea of common property where men did not la-
bour for private gain had been frequent among preachers
like Thomas Lever. Except for More, few of the economic
reformers possessed practical intelligence. Crowley, who
ui^ed merchants to refrain from making more money
also advised sons to continue their fathers' trades. Wide-
lyGOOglC
DEMOCRATIC TENDENCIES 183
spread dissatisfaction gave occasion for the expression of
sympathy to the poor and the wish to redress their griev-
ances. A system of rewards for industry was recom-
mended as it was rect^nized that laws could not set every-
thing right nor compel men to be industrious.' In a
curious pamphlet of the age, a merchant and knight ar-
gue about primacy, till the ploughman who enters de-
clares that gentleman and beggar come from one stock
and that virtue alone gives superiority. The conclusion
favoured elective government for a term of years with
rulers curbed by stringent laws.*
The spiritual foundation for democracy came, however,
from religion. Already, Polydore Vergil had expressed
belief that it began among the ancient Hebrews "which
were ruled by a popular state."' The primitive faith of
Christianity which the reformers aimed to revive, was
democratic in spirit. Latimer preached that before God's
Judgment Seat all would be equal since princes and
ploughman were alike made of one matter.* A growing
sympathy for the poor was felt and its expression at times
assumed a form which partly through religious, partly
through classical influence would now be called demo-
cratic. When under Henry VIII the Canterbury school
changed from monkish to lay hands certain of the com-
missioners appointed to carry this out tried to restrict
future pupils to gentlemen's sons, saying that the others
were better fitted for the plough and handicrafts, than
to be learned, and only those of gentle birth were to have
" the knowledge of government and rule in the Common-
wealth." Cranmer opposed this as being contrary to the
Divine Will whose gifts were given indifferently to any
class, and told the commissioners that though they were
themselves gentlemen born yet they all sprang from lowly
beginnings and owed their elevation to education. And
he said "If the gentleman's son be apt to learning let
him be admitted; if not let the poor man's child apt, enter
his room.* The first bill introduced into the House of
lyGOOgIC
i84 TUDOR IDEALS
Commons in Edward VI's reign was one "for bringing
up poor men's children.""" If not the direct outcome of
Brynklow's ideas for needy children to be educated at the
expense of the community it showed the existence of a new
feeling for the poor. In the interest taken in social re-
form by men like Lupset, Brynklow and Crowley, John
Hales and Thomas Lever, real sympathy for the less
fortunate classes was expressed.
The early manifestations of democracy were less with
respect to secular than to church affairs. The study of
the Bible awakened the first revolt against authority,
though the idea that the State must dominate the faith
of the people was never thrown off in the Sixteenth Cen-
tury. Elizabeth showed herself as keen for uniformity
as Rome, but reformers who had been to Zurich and
Geneva, returned full of ideas of spiritual independence
on the part of each community, and in revolt against the
crown's authority in matters of religion. The gi^at
stimulus given to democratic ideas came from the Conti-
nent where the training of communal life had rendered
easier its assertion. Calvinism assumed a self-governing
form and Lawrence Humphrey, the defender of the aris-
tocratic idea, denounced the anabaptists because of their
belief that all should have equal rights.^'
When the Puritans in England attacked the bishops
they were working toward a Church democracy which
soon afterwards assumed so despotic a form in Massa-
chusetts. Beyond religious autonomy the next step
was political. The Sixteenth Century is usually set
down as an age of political reaction, but the new reli-
gious ideas brought with them an evolution of the people
toward a realization of their rights and became in turn
the foundation for future democracy. Thus Puritan dem-
ocratic leanings made them show aversion to coat ar-
mour.'* Their writers spoke of the essential equality of
all at birth and in death '^ and allowed only a moral
foundation to gentility. The rough equality of all primi-
lyGOOglC
DEMOCRATIC TENDENCIES 185
tive communities with their natural outlets given to
ability, were to find fresh vigour in the oversea expansion
of England.
A curious rhythm of life can be discerned. Where the
internal revolution effected by Henry VIII had given
free scope to personality, the second half of the cen-
tury witnessed the growth of two unconsciously opposing
tendencies which supplemented each other. Internally, the
greater stability of the state caused a new conservatism
of wealth which extending once more over the land built
the broad foundations of England which have survived
almost to this day. Parallel with this, the expansion of
the nation overseas with its banning at colonization
and its growing trade, caused the free outlet for oppor-
tunity. The democratic idea which was still unformed and
cherished only in the minds of a few preachers or scholars,
could later find its support prepared for it in a more asser-
tive and enterprising medium than existed in a conserva-
tive agricultural community.
Evidence of sympathy for republican ideas may be
discerned in a Lord Chancellor and courtier like Hatton,"
who contrasts a "popular estate" to a monarchy by
remarking not very appropriately, that "a popular es-
tate which is perpetual and never dieth because there
reigneth no king, always thankfully remembereth and
bountifully rewardeth those that have truly and faith-
fully served." There were then greater reactions against
the pomp of courts than is commonly supposed. Queen
Elizabeth's vanity of apparel has effaced impressions
like that of William of Orange "going about in a gown
which a mean born student in our Inns of Court would
not have worn, while his waistcoat was like what was worn
by watermen in England" and his company were "the
burgesses of that beer-brewing town.""
The trend toward democracy was also indirect. It
touched other tendencies which while not democratic in
their intention, became so by their result. The ideal of
lyGOOgIC
186 TUDOR IDEALS
virtu characteristic of the Renaissance, meant the abil-
ity for personality to assert itself, unrestricted by any limi-
tations. It gave free play to energy and in so far as it
transcended all rigid convention its purpose was the same
as that offered by democracy. Tamburlaine who creates
his generals Kings of Morocco and Algiers tells them
"Your birth shall be no blemish to your fame
For virtue is the fount where honour springs."
(Part I, IV, IV, IJl, sq.)
Democratic ideas were probably unknown to Marlowe
who would, doubtless, have condemned their Puritan
taint, but the spirit of free energy and equality of oppor-
tunity was in his mind. Drayton could, likewise pro-
claim that all were born alike and styled those without
quaHties of their own
"Base I proclaim you though derived from Kings." "
The conscious belief in democracy remained unfor-
mulated, but the conditions were at hand which allowed
its later growth by destroying whatever barred the way
to a free assertion of personality. Men dreamed of a better
state, and reinforced their vision by classical example.
Shakespeare pointed to America as the land of promise,
and located in the Bermudas the hope of the New World,
the land where there were neither rich nor poor, nor rulers
nor ruled.
lyGOOgIC
III. PATRIOTISM AS AN IDEAL
The medieval conception of patriatism reposed on per-
sonal loyalty rather than on any definite idea of the state.
It arose out of the feudal structure and possessed only a
shadowy vision of national consciousness. The feeling
toward the latter came gradually and was due to the
unification of the nation under Tudor rule and the dis-
covery of antiquity acting directly and by suggestion
through the example of neighbouring states.
Already, in the time of Henry VI when the need for a
Navy had became pressing, the shipowners offered to
lend and provision their vessels for service.' The ship-
ping community was normally the one which would first
respond to the centralizing tendencies of the state. But
a long period of civil wars, freedom from serious foreign
danger, and the absence of a real foreign policy, were not
calculated to bring out patriotism in the nation. Henry
VI's queen thought little of inviting the French to sack
Sandwich out of hatred to the Duke of York.' The call-
ing in of foreigners was not regarded in the modern light.
Caxton contrasted the devotion of the Romans ready
to lay down their lives for their country with the weak
patriotism he saw about him.* Fisher pressed for the
invasion of England by Charles V; Lord Darcy and Lord
Hussey in the North urged the emperor to invade Eng-
land promising their support; even Wolsey was accused
of a simihr wish.
Great emotions have fired the spirit of nations far more
effectively than the low pressure of more material inter-
ests. The lives of states as of individuals, is oftener de-
termined by the sudden emotional reactions to danger,
than by the continuous response to normal needs. Be-
tween the pedestrian view of history which finds its
lyGOOgIC
188 TUDOR IDEALS
interest in the chronicle of humdrum events, and the at-
tempt to penetrate its spirit at the rare moments when
this is lifted by the lire of something more ennobling, lies
the difference in its interpretation.
By its classical revival the Sixteenth Century learned
the civic virtues of antiquity. The Renaissance bor-
rowed an antique foundation for its patriotic ideas, quot-
ing Plato that men were not born for themselves but for
their country. Ancient examples of patriotism were held
up admiringly by Sixteenth Century writers who found
duty to the state taking the place of the feudal devo-
tion to the individual. The feeling grew that the greatest
service a man could render was to save his country from
danger.' The ideal of the state became a goal for which
everyone could strive. In Machiavelli's words, "Where
the welfare of the country is at stake, no consideration can
intervene of justice, or injustice, of mercy or cruelty,
commendable or ignominious but putting all else aside,
one must adopt whatever cause will save its existence
and preserve its liberty." "
The national spirit asserted on the ruins of feudalism,
demanded the use of the vernacular to be substituted for
the Latin of the Universal church. The cosmopolitan
fabric of Europe as a Christian republic was crumbling,
and in its place, national growth was everywhere evident.
By an odd paradox the discovery of antiquity was to in-
tensify the divei^ence of states who, out of a common
culture, then extracted the sense of their own national
consciousness.
Early expressions of such ideas came from those who
living abroad had been influenced by the new patriotism
learned in foreign parts which served to kindle their own.
"My King, My Country 1 seek for whom I live" wrote
Wyatt on his return from Spain. An Englishman who had
spent his life abroad, and was the first to come under the
charm of the new continental schools of poetry, was yet
he, in whose
lyGOOgIC
PATRIOTISM AS AN IDEAL 189
"lively brain
as on a stithe where that some work of fame
was daily wrought to Britain's gain
a worthy guide to bring
Our English youth by travail unto fame." *
The development of the national spirit grew by its re- .
action from whatever was foreign. ^The su^estion that .
Henry should plead his divorce before a Roman tribunal •■
caused the greatest indignation.^ The English national
spirit had always objected to papal interference, but
whereas in the Middle Ages such resentment was confined
to few in number, it was now extended numerically among
a people morally prepared for the revolt from Rome.
The exaltation of royalty was another step toward at-
taining such national consciousness. The power of the
prince raised to an unprecedented height became the in-
termediate condition before vesting the same authority
in the state. Various circumstances coincided for inten-
sifying patriotism. The royal power firmly grasped,
offered a tangible object in place of former loyalties to
feudal and religious lords, which had been definitely
sapped. Lastly, classical education held out a conscious
patriotic ideal borrowed from antiquity. England ac-
quiring her new patriotism' followed the example taken
by other European states whose evolution had been sim-
ilar. But where Italy, cursed by foreign interference
and internal bickerings, failed to attain unity, and France
found it delayed by religious war, England, more fortu-
nate, gained this almost at once.
The duty of service now became transferred from the
feudal lord to the state. The feeling aroused against the
new class of middlemen who leased the land was based on
the fear of their alleged lack of patriotism and inability
" to do the King service. " '' When Ralph Robinson trans-
lated " Utopia " he did so ostensibly as a duty to God and
to his country.* In Starkey's " Dialogue," Cardinal Pole is
urged todevote his life to the affairs of the Commonwealth.
lyGOOgIC
I90 TUDOR IDEALS
Men must have regard for their country's welfare and he
who neglects this for the pleasure of his own quiet, does
wrong. This was the ancient ideal of civil life revived by
the Renaissance. Every individual was expected to do his
duty toward the state and place the good of the Common-
wealth above everything else.'
The patriotic duty of scholars was pointed out and Sir
Thomas Elyot impressed the fact on his reader that the
reason for devoting the greater part of his life to studying
the ancients came from his wish to benefit his country.""
Patriotism became exalted into the highest virtue and some
there were bold enough no longer to identify it with the
prince. At a time when personal alliance was still very
strong, an independent thinker like Poynet could maintain
that "men ought to have more respect to their country
than to their prince; to the commonwealth than to any
one person. For the country and the commonwealth is a
degree above the King." " This was the principle of the
commonwealth party, which later made John Hales write
in a similar strain about the citizen's duty to his country.
The patriotic ideal was shaped by literature. Gas-
colgne impressed their duty to defend the Common-
wealtK and respond to their country's claim on lords,
knights, and squires,'^ and Richard Crompton could
say "No man is born only for himself but for his coun-
try also."" This antique thought ran through letters.
Every writer felt he was performing a service toward his
fellow countrymen. The feeling of obligation and of ow-
ing everything to the State was more than a convention.
"The power of one man is far too feeble ever to make
his country his debtor," wrote Sir William Cornwallis."
Religion and patriotism were generally identified in
the Sixteenth Century. Faith formed usually so great a
part of the national creed that the patriotism of most
English Catholics was all the more to their credit. Car-
dinal Allen was quick to note that the number of Catho-
lics who revolted in England was as nothing compared to
lyGOOgIC
PATRIOTISM AS AN IDEAL 191
the Calvinists in France,'^ The question was open if
it was lawful to bear arms in the service of a prince ol
another religion, though writers pointed out that, when
Pope Julius II found himself in danger, he accepted aid
from a squadron of Turks, while Paul IV took Grisons
Protestant as his mercenaries."
A theory of patriotism derived from different origins
grew to fit the circumstances in every country. In Italy,
where feudal traditions were weak and the classical ex-
ample strong, the excess of individualism triumphed.
Loyalty to a sovereign in the northern sense, was there
well-nigh unknown, and patriotism, though occasionally
intense when not centred on culture was cherished as a
remote ideal. In France the closer balance of opposing
religious forces and the weaker power of the throne
caused many to waver. Brantome describing the Hugue-
not La Noue who fought against his king, asked if any
real foundation exists for the patriotic ideal and if this was
not an invention of Kings and Commonwealths for self-
preservation. The Dulce pro patria moH might have
some foundation, he thought, but it was easy to go too
far in sacrificing to it all other duties and obligations."
Such views were rare. Almost the only contemporary
instance of English antipatriotic sentiments are the ones
put by Peele in the mouth of Sir Thomas Stukely, who
on his way to Ireland to fight the English, and ship-
wrecked on the coast of Portugal, is asked by the Portu-
guese to explain his conduct in fighting against his sov-
ereign and responds:
"I may at liberty make choice
of all the continents that bound the worid
For why, I make it not so great desert
To be begot or bom in any place." **
Even he found it necessary to explain that if the love of
the fatherland was alienated it must be because of reli-
gion, and not for personal benefit.
lyGOOgIC
iga TUDOR IDEALS
England was spared from most of the evils of a divided
allegiance by its gradual and comparatively bloodless con-
version to Protestantism. The Catholic attempts after
the early years of Elizabeth's reign were forlorn hopes. A
few misguided fanatics at Douai and Louvain, or in Rome,
could plot against the queen. But even Cardinal Allen,
thundering the vilest abuse against her, places himself in
the attitude of an English patriot, grieved at seeing his
nation in heretical hands and eager to devote his life to his
"dearest country."" He calls on Philip that "for his
singular love to England" of which he once was king, he
should take the lead in such a crusade.
The excesses of a few fanatics were to do infinite harm
to the great mass of English Catholics who amid diffi-
cult circumstances were trying to prove their loyalty.
Pius V's injudicious bull excommunicating Elizabetti and
absolving English Catholics from their allegiance, was
deeply resented by the vast majority of these who paid
no attention to it, especially when they saw its slight ef-
fect on the relations which other Catholic countries
maintained with the queen. It served mainly to harm
patriotic Catholics who now became objects of distrust
and of popular prejudice. Roman intolerance reacted to
its own disadvantage and only cast suspicion on its sup-
porters. The patriotism of many, who lived and died
abroad, unable by force of circumstance to do their duty
to England strikes one of the saddest notes of the age.
Cardinal Allen's secretary, Roger Bayne, whose life was
passed in Italy, wrote with ineffectual conviction of the
scholar's duty to leave his seclusion at his country's call
and be ready to offer his life in sacrifice.*
Most English Catholics availed themselves of the sanc-
tion given by Slxtus V which authorized obedience to the
queen in civil matters. They smarted keenly under the
charge of lack of patriotism, and Cardinal Allen himself,
in his anonymous "Apologie of the English Seminaries,"
published at Mons in 1581, protests that the departure of
lyGOOgIC
PATRIOTISM AS AN IDEAL 193
Catholics from England was not due to any want of af-
fection since their one desire was to serve "our beloved
countrie." In the risings against Elizabeth a few Cath-
olics, it is true, informed the Spanish Ambassador that
they were ready to enter his master's service. But when
so staunch a Protestant as Maitland of Lethington, was
at one time ready to turn over Scotland and England to
Philip as Mary's husband, it is hard to fathom motives
which then revolved as much around persons as causes.
In spite of the bull of Pius V releasing her subjects
from obedience. Fathers Campion and Sherwin when
brought to the block, prayed for Elizabeth's prosperity
and happiness as their Queen *' with the same fervour as
the Puritan John Stubbes. Certain English Cathohcs
who accepted service abroad offered, however, strange ex-
amples of divided allegiance. John Story, who took the
oath of loyalty to the King of Spain and plotted with
him against Elizabeth, when afterward tried for treason
pleaded in vain his Spanish allegiance." But Sir Thomas
Copley who served the King of Spain, refi ains in hardly
any of his letters from fulsome exclamations of patriotism
in order to prove that though accepting such service he
remained at heart a patriotic EngUshman. How often
he begs the queen for any kind of employ "wherein a
good Catholic Christian may without hazard of his soul
serve his temporal prince . . . though for the time I
live abroad 1 cannot cease to be an Englishman and love
the soil best where I have most freehold."^' The idea of
property was here tied up with that of patriotism.
More remarkable was the case of Sir William Stanley
who although a Catholic, proved to be one of Elizabeth's
ablest soldiers in Ireland and in the Low Countries. He
was given various Important commands and the govern-
orship of Deventer. For reasons which remain obscure,
whether because of pique in not having shared in the
spoils, or else religious, he surrendered to the enemy with
his soldiers, most of whom were Irish Catholics, and en>
lyGOOgIC
194 TUDOR IDEALS
tered the Spanish service. Cardinal Allen, blundering
as usual, wrote a defence of his action,** on the ground
that English intervention in Flanders was piracy and
that a Catholic who served a heretic partook of his
iniquity.
The anonymous author of" Ldcester's Commonwealth "
makes one of his spokesmen a papist lawyer "but with
such moderation and reservation of duty toward his
Prince and Country." Diversity of creed from the head
of the state was in theory considered to involve an element
of treason, but so long as this was not translated into
action there was no ground for condemnation. Raldgh
could, therefore, exhort all Englishmen "of what religion
soever" to join together against the Spaniard. And a less
known writer could say "Though we be divided for re-
ligion ... yet I trust that we wil! wholly faithfully
. . . join tc^ether in this service of defence of our
Prince and country against the enemy."**
Elizabeth looked at differences of faith in a purely politi-
cal light and her choice of Admiral Lord Howard is the
best evidence of her reliance on Catholic loyalty. The
hatred of Spain burned deep in the national character
and aroused every interest of patriotism, greed, adven-
ture and religion. Englishmen could gratify all these at the
expense of the Spaniard and Raleigh found pride in the
fact that England had first revealed their weakness before
the world." The Spanish forces " at home, abroad, in Eu-
rope, in India, by sea and land, we have even with hand-
fuls of men and ships overthrown and dishonoured. "
Those who lost their lives in this crusade could say,
like Richard Grenville, that he died "with a joyful
and quiet mind, having ended his life as a true soldier
ought to do that hath fought for his country, queen, reli-
gion and honour,' '" The English of Elizabeth's reign were
fully conscious of having performed deeds of courage such
as had been celebrated by the ancients. Daring, coupled
with patriotic purpose, was exalted into an ideal of li^
lyGOOgIC
PATRIOTISM AS AN IDEAL 195
and when Gervase Markham, himself an old soldier, cele-
brated the last fight of the "Revenge" he wrote
Never shall Greece nor Rome nor Heathen State
With shining honour Albion's shine depress."
Pride in what Englishmen had done, became every-
where apparent. In his relation of Frobisher's Voyages,
Beste recites with satisfaction the roll call of English nav-
igators whose daring had at times led them to an " hon-
ourable death." Though he did not begrudge Spaniards
and Portuguese thdr fame for successes in navigation, yet
he remarked they had never encountered such hardships
nor such dangers as Englishmen.
The feeling of patriotism became intense. When War-
wick wrote to encourage Leicester to persist in his for-
ward policy in the Low Countries in the face of the queen's
displeasure, it was on the ground of its benefit to Eng-
land," The modern idea of patriotism as something
separate from the crown although associated therewith,
was growing. The centralization of authority made this
possible for the first rime. The dignity of England was
above everything and could make men forget their per-
sonal animosities. The French Ambassador de Maisse
was impressed by Essex ui^ing him to call on his greatest
enemy Burleigh, and wrote, Ih ont de grans respects
Us uns aux autres.^ Coming himself from a court torn
by personal dissensions he admired the fact that these
could be kept under and that avowed enemies treated
each other with respect.
Yet patriotism as a living growth was only deeply roused
by the presence of real danger. No one cared after a dis-
aster in Ireland suffered at the hands of Tyrone; such
general indifference was laid down to " a careless and insen-
sibledulness."* When it was falsely rumoured in London
that the Spaniards had landed on the Isle of Wight, this
news " had such fear and consternation in this town as I
would little have looked for with such a cry of women —
lyGOOgIC
196 TUDOR IDEALS
chaining of streets and shutting of the gates as though the
enemy had been at Blackwall. I am sorry and ashamed
that this weakness and nakedness of ours on all sides
should show itself so apparently as to be carried far and
near to our disgrace both with friends and foes."*'
Nothing more differentiates our age from earlier ones
than the disciplining of its patriotism. A new public
opinion often intolerantly expressed has brought about a
unifying of national judgment impossible before the ad-
vent of popular education. The alternatives between in-
difference to national disaster and unseemly fear, which
are occasionally found in the pages of English history,
cannot be laid down to any want of patriotism but to the
absence of an established standard. It is among the
merits, of democracy to have impressed the mass with a
far greater feeling than before of its responsibility. The
first glimpse of this was seen in the national response at
the moment of the Spanish danger.
lyGOOgIC
IV. RELIGION IN THE STATE
In his "Apologie" Cardinal Allen wrote of England. "It
is the turpitude of our nation through the whole World,
whereat we blush before strangers that sometimes fall
into discourse of such things, that in one man's memory
and since this strange mutation began, we have had to our
Prince a man who abolished the Pope's authority by his
laws, and yet in other points kept the faith of his fathers;
we have had a child who by the like laws abolished
together with the Papacy the whole ancient religion; we
have had a woman who restored both again and sharply
punished Protestants; and lasdy her Ma^ that now is wIk>
by the like laws hath long since abolished both again, and
now severely punished Catholics as the other did Protes-
tants; and all these strange diJFerences within the compass
of thirty years."'
Few things are more difficult to understand than the
reli^ous spirit in an age of such swift change as the
Sixteenth Century. A matter so controversial allowing
room for opposite opinions, might be preferable to avcnd.
But religion occupied too great a part in the activity of
the age for this to be possible. It was still an essential
discipline of life and its civil aspects left over as the great
legacy of the Middle Ages were universal. Whether in
its Roman, its Lutheran, or its Calvinist dress, the secular
side it assumed was lat^y a medieval inheritance.
Apart from its doctrinal and disciplinary evolution the
religious history of the age offers enormous interest in
its relations wiui the beginnings of a new idea of faith as
separate from the state. This modem doctrine dates from
the Eighteenth Century, which expanded ideas whose cau-
tious origins can be traced to the latter part of the Six-
teenth Century. In France such convictions brought to
lyGOOgIC
198 TUDOR IDEALS
power Henry IV's party, and in England they strength-
ened Elizabeth's rule.
On the Continent the Reformation reacted to political
circumstances which hardened its development. In Eng-
land this was guided more by national than by theo-
logical considerations, and the result was a compromise.
England transformed the spirit of the Reformation as
much as the Reformation transformed England. The si-
lent absorbing power of the British nature, by slow .con-
tinuous pressure even when apparently acting through
direct measures, was always more practical than theoret-
ical, more instinctive than it was intellectual.
A great movement like the Reformation around which
English history for a century grouped itself, was partly
popular and partly directed by the crown, with a shifting
borderland between the two. It began amid disorder, half
intentionally, half accidentally, to end upon a secure na-
tional foundation. In turn persecuted, and persecuting, it
passed through the most sensational vicissitudes alternat-
ing between victory, defeat and compromise, to end in
victory.
Rarely do ideas spring fully armed into the world and
the Reformation offers no exception. It came from no
single fatherhood, for its seeds, in all that concerned the
attacks on the corruption of the clei^y, were of very an-
cient date. Yet not till the Sixteenth Century when the
many causes of unrest, spiritual, economic, and political,
were able for the first time to unite, did it gather the
strength of victory.
On the Continent, Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli ended by
each offering their own guidance in the place of Rome, but
in England no great religious leader appeared. The king
would never have tolerated one. The religious ferment
was, however, intense and the feeling strong against
the Roman church. But the English political genius ex-
pressed by the crown was ready with an acceptable solu-
tion flattering to the national pride. As a religious mas-
lyGOOglC
RELIGION IN THE STATE 199
ter was necessary, the new master was to be the king
who symbolized the realm. In taking into his own hands
the spiritual reins, he diverted to his purposes the popu-
lar discontent against Rome. Apart from dynastic con-
siderations pr the greedy thirst for the Church's wealth,
and merely from a political point of view the crown util-
ized the popular feding to throw over an adversary who
could never consent to be a subordinate.
The popularity of the Reformation came from its ap-
peal to the growing nationalism and its resentment of all
foreign interference. Added tothis was the quickened con-
sciousness of men impatient of a distant authority which
claimed to dominate their Hfe and no longer subservient
to a dogma in which they felt declining interest. The great
popular awakening gathered strength while the Church
remained stationary. On the one side was an expanding
force still uncontrolled, still unaware of its own strength,
yet groping in the dark toward moral betterment. On
the other was a vast and venerable institution which kept
its authority by tradition and maintained it later by the
balance of political forces.
Only a few years had passed since the death of the
founder of the Tudor dynasty. He gave no reason to an-
ticipate religious changes. His orthodoxy was enrire. He
had tried to obtain the canonization of Henry VI on the
ground that miracles had been wrought at his tomb al-
though three popes were unwilling to grant this, lest, as
Bacon su^ests, that monarch's simple-mindedness bring
the honour into disrepute. Katherine of Aragon, herself
most devout, was yet struck by the rigid rehgious discipline
prevailing at court and wrote to her father of how she had
been obliged to sell from her wardrobe in order to buy
meat. Those who ate it on days of abstention were re-
garded as heretics.' An ascetic tradition surviving from
the Middle Ages still exercised its hold on believers. A
prelate so worldly as Wolsey unknown to all save his con-
fessor* wore a hair shirt next to his skin. More's piety
lyGOOgIC
200 TUDOR IDEALS
would be a hackneyed subject were it less noble. Oddly
enough, the martyr of orthodoxy, in " Utopia," described
his conception of religion in terms of pure deism. Utopians
"believe that there is a certain Godly power unknown,
everlasting, incomprehensible, inexplicable, far above the
capacity and reach of man's work, dispersed throughout
all the world, not in bigness but in virtue and power."*
Like many of the nobler minds of the early Renais-
sance, More looked for a broader interpretation of the
Roman doctrine which he refused to abandon.
Faith was close to the minds of mospyneKy Theology
was a living question and its political aspects made its
discussion of immediate interest. Apart from such prac-
tical sides, the sudden vicissitudes of life, the alterna-
tion of its favours, and the closeness of death, made<men
more prone to look toward the spiritual sides of CMSt-
ence. The impress on the mind left by centuries of
medieval culture was stiil strong, and had not yet been
weakened by any widespread accumulation of scepticism
or indifference. Devotion and prayer formed an intimate
part of life. All the Tudors were pious. Henry VIII
wrote on theology, Edward VI felt the same interest,
Elizabeth translated the " Mirror of Virtue."
In such an atmosphere of orthodoxy Henry VIII was
brought up. The religious turn of his mind became no-
ticeable with all his acts, and he himself tried John Lam-
bert, a member of the Christian Brotherhood, who was
condemned to death by the king for his unorthodox views
about the real presence. It is hard to judge the depth of
inward feeling by outward fact or to appreciate the value
attached to faith through the connection between church
and state, but the result became plain enough in the king's
effort to obtain civil supremacy over the church. His
continual innovations and changes baffled even contem-
porary observers, who were at a loss to understand how
on the same day and the same hour three men could be
executed for heresy and three for having spoken in favour
lyGOOgIC
RELIGION IN THE STATE 201
of the Pope.' Viewed from the distance of centuries, his
actions seem due to the forceful energy of a monarch who
with exalted notions of his own power, was unable to shake
off the medieval scholastic training he had received. His
idea of the state was that of a prince of the Renaissance.
His conception of the church was that of a pope of the .*igi
Middle Ages, save that he had substituted himself for
the pope.
At the banning of his reign, he impressed people
by the zeal of his orthodoxy, at the end by the rapid
shifts of his innovations. But his faith always remained
an official doctrine. Whether orthodox, or in revolt, it
never departed from the fixed observances. Church rule
and civil rule were only different forms of the same organ-
ism. No such mysticism ever swayed him as made his
great contemporary Charles V abandon the crown for
monastic seclusion.
The acquiescence which Henry VIII met with, was due
less to indifference than to religious interest. Paradoxi-
cal as may appear, it was the keen interest in theolog-
ical matters which allowed Henry VHI to effect his rev-
olution. The relics of Lollardry and Wyclifism, never
quite dead, caused men to be dissatisfied with the condi-
tions in the Church without, however, attaching discon-
tent to any tangible method of reform." Even the orthodox
felt that something was wrong. Erasmus lamented the
dullards who expounded theology. Colet refused to kiss
the relics of St. Thomas. A feeling of unrest was in the air.
Such indignation became the groundwork for the seeth-
ing shapeless movement which then stirred the English
nation. When this attacked abuses, or made its appeal
to reason, higher circles discerned advantage to Oi«r
greed. Tlie diffusion of education and of printed books
allowed the masses for the first time to md, and aroused
from below a deep and continuous stream of religious
feeling which often puzzled those on high, uncertain
whether the wiser policy was to ignore, direct, or to sup-
lyGOOglC
202 TUDOR IDEALS
press this. Forces long pent up, suddenly came to the
surface. While Englishmen evolved no original doctrine
they resjHjnded to the succession of new religious ideas
which then came out of Germany and of Switzerland.
The vices of the church in the early part of the Sixteenth
Century, have been immensely exa^erated. But what
is not an exaggeration is that it presented an immobile
element unwilling to take into consideration the strength
of the new forces growing up around it. Between the
vague discontent of the orthodox, and the violent criticism
of those in revolt, there was room for every shade of opin-
ion. For a time it seemed as if anything might happen
under the plea of making Christianity return to its primi-
tive creed.'
Henry VIII provided the leadership around which such
dissatisfaction could cluster. A mind less scholastically
orthodox than his, might have alarmed the people by the
daring of his innovations and alienated them from the
throne. A spirit less resolute would have been reconciled
to Rome, and allowed the rift of reform to sever the na-
tion. It was Henry VIIl's greatness to thoroughly under-
stand his people, less by conscious effort than by his po-
litical instinct of representation, and to make his own
religious evolution precede by little that of the English
race. When he nationalized the faith, he was carrying out
the inarticulate wish of the great majority of his people
desirous to preserve theessentiaU of their creed, and in a
moment of growing national consciousness, no less anxious
for riddance of the hated vesriges of foreign intervention.
The king helped to form and to express the national will
to a degree which few elected leaders have ever succeeded
in doing.
The quarrel with Rome was therefore based less on
doctrine than on nationality. The people realized that
something was amiss and vaguely associated this with the
foreigner. The king was popular because instinctively
the people felt that he expressed their own desires, and
lyGOOgIC
RELIGION IN THE STATE 203
their welfare was bound up with his greatness. They re-
mained content to have him mould their spiritual fortunes,
and to think and believe with him. The seeming indiffer-
ence to faith during the first half of the century, and the
meekness with which the royal example was followed, arose
largely from the widespread belief in the spiritual su-
premacy of the sovereign. The stability of achievement
rested on genera! consent, expressed far more by a keen
popular interest which found its leader in the prince, than
by the indifference of a facile acquiescence.
Where a religion is universal there is little occasion for
intolerance. Before Luther Rome could be liberal. It is
only when revolt begins that this engenders the spirit of
persecution. Feeling, however, has its own interior laws,
and martyrdom requires preparation and an exaltation
which is rarely the product of a brief time. To every idea
can be traced a growth and a rhythm. Martyrs are there-
fore hardly ever found in the beginning of a movement.
Nearly always it requires a second generation to raise these
to the necessary pitch of enthusiasm. As with the Lol-
lards, early believers had begun by abjuring their heresies
for which, later, the humblest were glad to die; men
recanted under Henry, who afterward perished cheerfully
at the stake. Example was necessary to rouse the degree
of their fervour.
To those who preserved the ancient faith amid risk and
danger all honour is due. It acted as a solace to many.
Much of the best writing of the Sixteenth Century was
devotional and now seems without interest, but it is impos-
sible to read Fisher's simple and pure English without
being moved by the depth of his feeling. His "Spiritual
Consolation" written for his sister Elizabeth at the time
when he lay a prisoner in the Tower under sentence of
death, contains rare literary beauty as well as religious sen-
timent. On the Roman side, a few like More and Fisher,
and the Monks of Charterhouse, possessed the strength of
soul to suffer for their conscience. Yet the majority of
lyGOOgIC
«>4 TUDOR IDEALS
those who later went courageously to their death had to
be buoyed up by the spectacle of the first martyrs before
they could feel sufficiently fortified. Such was the case
of Father Forest who, after he had begun teaching his
penitents to perjure themselves, afterward sought death in
expiation.
In a period of such swift change men could not be sure
of their conviction and passed through an evolution ot
conscience before they became ready to die. The sudden-
ness of transformations began by reacting on character
through facilitating a certain elasticity which later again
hardened. Princess Mary had signed a letterWainst all
her convictions, recognizing Henry VIII as supreme head
of the Church, disavowing papal authority and declaring
her mother's marriage incestuous and herself illegitimate.
Elizabeth as princess simulated devorion to the Catholic
creed so long as her sister reigned.
Master Bilney, whom Latimer greatly admired, when
first charged with heresy had been induced by his friends
to recant. At Cambridge " he was in such an anguish and
agony so that nothing did him good. " Later feeling the
old fervour once more, he went cheerfully to the stake.'
The courage of a young woman like Anne Askew in
suffering torture and martyrdom for her faith lent strength
to the Protestant cause.' Latimer himself had frequent
recourse to subterfuge in overmatching the bishops who
were seeking to trap him into heresy. On one occasion he
changed the sermon when noticing a bishop entering his
church, while on another he overheard a scribe taking
down his answers from behind the arras.* His own piety
ended by winning victory over the temptation to recede.
"The highest promotion that God can bring his unto in
this life is to suffer for his truth, . . . and one suffering
for the truth turneth more than a thousand sermons." "
With less fire than Savonarola, his spirit proved as herrac
in the more homely garment which then enveloped Eng-
lish faith.
lyGOOgIC
RELIGION IN THE STATE 205
When even the staunchest had wavered it is not sur-
prising, that with Mary's accession, the great mass of the
nation acquiesced in a return to the ancient creed. Not
all had the courage or conviction to face the terrible
ordeal. Sir John Cheke despite his ardent Protestantism
recanted in the presence of the stake, and expressed his
willingness to obey Queen Mary's laws and other orders
of religion. Typical of the multitude, is the anonymous
writer who describes the queen's triumphal entry with
King Philip into London, and Cardinal Pole's speech on
the restoration of Catholicism. He relates how with many
others he regretted his own past conduct and repents for
his religious sins, determining to make amends in hence>
forth practicing the "most holy Catholic faith."
The reformation pendulum had swung too far under
Edward VI not to make welcome a return to the old reli-
gion. Men were ready to restore the Roman creed, but in-
disposed to give back the ancient Church lands. The ideas
of the English Reformation, just as later the ideas of the
French Revolution, triumphed largely because self-inter-
est committed to their support the most active element
in the population.
Although the English mind rarely found interest in
theological subtleties, the middleof the century with the
violent alternations between Edward and Mary, brought
to a head the religious question on both sides. The prep-
aration in fortitude had been achieved and henceforth
intensity of conviction was displayed more frequentiy than
under Henry VIII. The Catholics, especially after their
brief return to power, were to concentrate in a manner
which did honour to their conscience but deprived them of
hopes of advancement. Amid much general flexibility
one admires the attitude of the Marian bishops who, on
Elizabeth's accession refused to take the oath of supremacy
after her Protestant leanings became apparent, although
it meant their destitution and subsequent imprisonment.
The Catholic nobles showed more concern for thdr posj-
lyGOOgIC
K)6 TUDOR IDEALS
tion. At a meeting of the Knights of the Garter in
April, 1 561, Lord Sussex suggested that as a body, they
should reconunend the queen to marry Lord Robert Dud-
ley the future Leicester. Catholics like Montagu and
Arundel, and even a waverer like Norfolk, opposed the sug-
gestion although it was known that Dudley had promised
to restore the ancient faith. They preferred that Cathol-
icism suffer rather than that an inferior among themselves
be advanced.
Elizabeth herself was of necessity a Protestant, for to
have been otherwise was to proclaim her illegitimacy and
question her own authority. Though Pope Pius IV of-
fered to confirm her title he could not affect the circum-
stances of her birth. Her religion was therefore prejudged;
and if she flirted with Rome until secure In her position,
she did so in a manner which reflected greater credit on
her diplomatic skill than on her honesty. Although too
much of her age not to be fond of theology, Elizabeth
stood for the new spirit born of the Renaissance which
subordinated religion to the state.
Her own mind was naturally but little intolerant. Her
view of religion was not far from the one expressed by a
contemporary, who wrote that the prince ought more than
others "to seem a worshipper of God" as his subjects
' would therefore dread less to suffer injustice at his hands;
quoting the opinion of the ancients on religion as being
a necessary element of the commonwealth and of use to
mankind."
Toward the end of her rrign Queen Elizabeth told the
French Ambassador, de Maisse, that if princes in Christ-
endom had the necessary good will and resolution, it would
be an easy matter to settle all differences in religion for
there was only one Christ and one faith, and all the rest
were trifles.^^ The successive steps by which from the
date of her accession she gradually substituted the re-
formed creed for the Roman were carried out with extreme
caution and as imperceptibly as possible. No alteration
lyGOOgIC
RELIGION IN THE STATE 207
was at first permitted in the public services of religion, and
it was only by her selection of advisers and the exclusion of
devout Catholics, that the tendency toward reform grad-
ually became apparent." She attempted to treat religion
as part of the state but without fanaticism, for the English
people, religious by instinct and tradition, were not big-
oted and refrained from the excesses often committed on
the Continent.
"There are three notable differences of religion in the
land, the two extremes whereof are the Papist and the Pu-
ritan, and the religious Protestant obtaining the mean." "
Camden explained Elizabeth's zeal for one religion on
the ground that if diversity were tolerated^ it might be
an incentive to continual strife among a people so war-
like as the English.'^ Such was the political aspect of a
complex and delicate situation. It was the merit of
Elizabeth to have taken a middle course without any of
her father's exaggerations. The greatness of an individ-
ual in thought or action, nearly always emanates from
the relation he bears to the spirit of the age. At a time of
confused and opposite tendencies, her greatness was to
steer the nation so as to formulate the religious desires
which expressed the wishes of most of her people and re-
sponded best to their spiritual instincts.
A definite religious ideal was kept in view as the chief
goal of the state, on the ground that princes exposed them-
selves to blame who had only in mind the consideration
of temporal benefits and "pretend to no higher end than
wealth, peace and justice among their subjects."" _
Richard Hooker was to be the apologist of the estab-
lished order. In his survey of the civil aspects of religion
he adopted the view of a man of the world, rescuing the
occasional lack of elevation of his ideas by the rare beauty
of his style. To him, as to Elizabeth, it seemed out of
question for Church and Government to exist in a Chris-
tian state separate and distinct. "There is not any man
of the Church of England but the same man is also a mem-
lyGOOgIC
2o8 TUDOR IDEALS
ber of the commonwealth; nor any man a member of the
commonwealth which is not also of the Church of Eng-
land." " Religion and justice were inseparable, neither able
to exist without the other. Upholding the spiritual aspects
of the state, he brought out the authority of the prince
whose power was supreme to command even in matters of
Christian religion. By such reasoning, men conscientiously
changed their creed in response to their sovereign's desires.
The Sixteenth Century presents the strange anomaly, on
the one hand of the greatest suppleness in faith, coupled
on the other with the spirit of martyrdom existing on both
sides Roman and Puritan.
Hooker frankly steered a middle course. He appreci-
ated the twofold opposition gainst the supreme power
of the prince in matters of faith. The catholic because
their creed rested on the Pope, the Calvinist and Zwing-
lian, because it belonged in every national church to the
clergy there assembled. In his opinion princes receive it
by divine right, though he admits that God nowhere says
that kings should or should not have it. Quoting the
Scripture that "no man can serve two masters" his con-
clusion is that as the Kings of England can have no peers
within their own realm, no civilian nor ecclesiastic under
them can have coercive power when such power would
make that person so far superior to his own superior.
Hooker expounded the Tudor doctrine of lay suprem-
acy over the church, vested In the person of the ruler.
This fitted in with the English spirit of the rime unable
to brook the foreign interference of the Roman faith, yet
seeking a central authority, and therefore arming the
crown with spiritual as well as with temporal weapons.
Lastly, this view contained a moderation from Papist and
Puritan extreme, a respect for law on the part of the sover-
eign, a commonsense view of religion in its practical as-
pect toward life, which took cognizance of facts rather
than of dogma, and as such was peculiarly English. At a
time when fierce polemics were raging over church cero>
lyGoogk
1
RELIGION IN THE STATE . 209
monials, he wrote "whether it be not a kind of taking
God's name in vain to debase religion with such frivolous
disputes, a sin to bestow rime and labour about them."*'
Hooker never realized that any other than the established
order of society was possible. In his belief, there was al-
most divine sanction for the nobility«and he says with
unconscious servility, "We are not to dream in this case
of any platform which bringeth equally high and low unto
parish churches, . . ; so repugnant to the majesty and
greatness of English nobility."'* The authority of the
church implied the authority of the crown, the nobility,
the universities and all established orders.
Such was the theory of the English church which was
to represent the spiritual needs of the nation. Jewell
stated it with even greater vigor. "For this is our doc-
trine, that every soul of what calling soever he be — be he
monk, be he preacher, be he prophet, be he apostle —
ought to be subject to Kings and magistrates."" This
doctrinfv although creating a national church,left a clergy
which in its earlier history had not yet acquired the sense
of its own dignity. The servility of some of its higher
prelates is not among the bright pages of the time. A]^
met the Bishop of London could write to Sir Christopher
Hatton — "I preach without spirit. I trust not of God
but of my sovereign which is God's lieutenant and so
another God unto me." '*
In every age public men have less inidated the prevul-
ing forces than they have placed themselves astride of
these. Strong movements irrespective of their nature or
direction, require roots, and these are rardy found on the
surface of the soil where leadership becomes conspicuous.
The Sixteenth Century presents the paradox of vital
forces which aiFected the lives of men and drove them
toward sacrifice and martyrdom yet often swayed in turn
by sheer opportunists themselves indifferent in matters
of faith who utilized religion as a political force.
At court there was no quarrel about religious que»-
lyGOOglC
aio TUDOR IDEALS
tions because no one reasoned about them. Lyly could
deplore such lack of interest,'' but it was symptomatic.
Especially those returned from Italy were accused of
regarding faith solely from the point of view of a politi-
cal expedient.
It is impossible to divine from Shakespeare that the
Reformation had taken place, andifonejudged only from
his plays the Roman faith might still have been supreme.
Yet among the people a healthy and somewhat crude
religious feeling kept strong. There was a prevalent
belief that the defeat of the Armada was caused by divine
intercession. Protestantism gave even a religious sanction
to the freebooters who carried out their piratical enter-
prises on the Spanish Main."
lyGOOgIC
V. TOLERANCE AND PERSECUTION
Wolsey's dying advice to the king had been to keep a
watchful eye on the Lutherans,' yet in the twenty years
of his administration there was far less persecution for
heresy than during the three of More's Chancellorship.'
Few things are more remarkable, than how the kindest of
men who preached tolerance, appreciated the merits of
Lutheranism and denounced the evils of persecution where
out of "the ashes of one heretic springeth up many"'
should himself have become a violent persecutor.
The paradox is best explained by the dualism between a
system of laws inherited from the Middle Ages and a new
spirit of tolerance born in the Renaissance. As a jurist.
More felt obliged to apply the old statutes enacted against
heresy under Richard II and Henry IV, while as a human-
ist he expressed the feeling for tolerance so soon to be
checked by fierce religious hatreds.
The early days of the Sixteenth Century displayed a
more liberal spirit than later became possible when poli-
tics under religious guise aroused human passion into vio-
lence. James Bainham,' a barrister of the Middle Temple,
asserted in 1531, that "if a Turk, a Jew, or a Saracen, do
trust in God and keep his law he is a good Christian man,"
an opinion for which he was afterward burned. Starkcy,
with his Italian culture, takes the same broad view. Jews,
Saracens, Turks and Moors so long as they observe their
own laws which are the best they know, " seeing the infinite
goodness of God hath no less made them after his own
image and form, than he hath made the Christian Man,"
nor are they to be damned so long as they live in accord-
ance with the law of nature.* Even in Luther he had
found good, saying that "He and his disciples be not so
wicked and foolish that in all things they err." *
lyGOOgIC
ai2 TUDOR IDEALS
Not everyone believed in intolerance; John Olde asked
the question when Christ had ever compelled anyone to
come to his religion "with imprisonment or with fire" and
not only condemned persecution but went so far as to say
that " no man should die for his faith." '
The downfall of Protector Somerset who had refused to
persecute and repealed the old statutes against heresy,
brought an end to all hope of milder rule. Passions were
violently aroused and even those whose inclinations were
mild found they had to range themselves on the side of
persecution. The currents of progress are never able long
to pursue their course unchecked, and the more they run
ahead of an age the more certain they are to be coun-
tered. Somerset's tolerance had been individual and was
little in touch with the ideas of the great mass of the popu-
lation always inclined to welcome the use of force as the
sign of strong rule.
The efforts of the crown were directed toward drawing
to itself what remained of the ancient alliance formerly
given to Rome and enforcing this obedience with the cus-
tomary means practiced by authority whenever it has found
itself resisted. To blame this as cruel is to misread the
spirit of that age. The suffering imposed may have
touched human chords in a few, but the method adopted
was in keeping with the current usage of authority. TTie
right of the crown to enter into the religious belief of its
subjects was hardly questioned and even the Catholics
who were its victims, seem, as a rule, to have been more
intent in changing the monarch on the throne as in the case
of Elizabeth, than in seeking to modify the point of view
which sanctioned their persecution. Only occasionally
those who suffered felt inclined to liberal views, and Sir
Thomas Copley writing Burleigh to complain about the
seizure of his possessions, cited the example of Germany
where princes were well served by "their subjects of
whatsoever religion." ' As a victim he could place religion
on a broad foundation of tolerance.
lyGOOgi
TOLERANCE AND PERSECUTION 313
Among rulers the problem of tolerance was oftener one
of opportunism than of conviction. Bacon when making
su^^tions to restore order in Ireland advocated a policy
to recover the hearts of the people and recommended a
wide religious liberty in onder to deprive the rebel
leaders of the plea that they were defending the Catholic
faith. Toleration of religion seemed to him a policy of
absolute necessity,' although the principal dties were to
be exempted from this measure.
Bacon's view was that of a rationalist who saw in reli-
gion a matter of policy. The great problem of government
was then to impose discipline in questions of faith
lest the denial of spiritual authority lead to political
rebellion. Even a bigot like Philip II who would not allow
Chaloner, the British Envoy at Madrid, to read the Bible,
and forced him to abstain during Lent, was ready enous^
to admit compromise and tolerance in England where he
preferred the country Protestant and neutral to Catholic
and French.
On the Continent, ideas of toleration had at first been
current. Cardinal Granville writing from the Low Coun-
tries quoted leaders in the Netherlands like Flores de
Montmorency, and the Marquis de Bergues, who openly
said it was not permissible to shed blood for religious
motives and wished to know what scriptural sanction
existed for the execution of heretics. He himself replied
to a lady who asked his advice r^arding the treatment of
heretics on her estate, that for those converted there
should be no punishment, while it was not advisable to
proceed against the hardened for they might later see the
light.'
In France the seeds of the future PoliHqtus were
scattered broadcast. Geoi^ Buchanan lived in the
intimacy of Marshal de Brissac who was known as the foe
of heretics, without this appearing anomalous. Writers
like Cognet urged the need for tolerance, and dted that
of the Turk for the Christian conscience and of Italian
lyGoogIc'
214 TUDOR IDEALS
princes for Jews,'" La Noue's " Political Discourses" then
translated into English contain one long argument against
persecution. Even Rome responded to such ideas. The
Cardinal of Ferrara'who came to England as an unofficial
envoy of the Vatican and whom Elizabeth received as a
Prince of the House of Este, expressed himself freely on the
folly of not associating with fellow Christians because of
religious differences." This may not have reflected his
true opinion but it did his line of policy. Tolerance might
be wise politically and states like Germany, Poland,
Bohemia and Hungary where it was practiced were held up
as examples.'* Unfortunately such belief was not deeply
enough grounded to withstand the onslaught of contrary
ideas.
The decay of any system is usually hastened by a large
indulgence, which renders it sympathetic and opens the
gate to new ideas breaking their way through the crust of
the old. This was true of conditions so utterly diverse as
prevailed in the Medieval Church of the Fifteenth Century,
or the French Monarchy on the eve of the Revolution. In
each instance the plan of reforms prepared from within, or
by those bred in the old system to which they remain at-
tached, after receiving an apparent welcome are suddenly
countered by other forces reactionary or radical, which
mould the movement in accordance with their strength.
Moderation failed in England in the Sixteenth Century
as it has always failed when a tempest has not yet spent
its force. The reason why a statesman so moderate as
Elizabeth attached herself to the more radical Protestant
party was only because she felt that the real strength of
her people lay there.
The Roman conception of a universal church left its
inheritance to Protestants in the um for a uniform creed.
Though many bore "honest papists" no ill will the opinion
was prevalent that both Catholics and Puritans were
"traitors." The spirit was the same whatever the ritual,
for on both sides men acted in the same way as soon as
lyGOOgIC
TOLERANCE AND PERSEOmON 215
open warfare broke out. Whether in the Low Countries
where Aiva's policy to stamp out heresy ruined the land or
in France where the tongues of Protestants were cut off be-
fore execution to avoid " blaspheming, " a wave of barbar-
ism was unchained in Europe under the name of religion.
The worst feature was its general popularity. Even in
England whatever later apologists have said, ParHament
neither expressed disapproval of Mary's persecution of
Protestants nor of Elizabeth's persecution of Catholics.
Only here and there a few wise minds like Castelnau could
remark that the effect of persecution was to increase the
zeal of the persecuted.
From which side did the spirit of persecution first come?
The query is idle for the Middle Ages had persecuted
heresy and handed down its methods as a principle of
government. Because the Renaissance gave birth to an
ideal of tolerance, because a few elect responded to this,
the vast majority of the nation remained indifferent or
opposed. The spirit of persecution became a recc^ized
dogma of government.
After the Pope's ill judged excommunication of Eliza-
beth, the Queen with greater political tact issued a proc-
lamation announcing that she did not intend to enter into
men's consciences so long as .they observed her laws in
open deeds.
All Elizabeth demanded was outward religious con-
formity, for it was her boast that she opened no windows
on men's souls. She insisted on no change of faith. Her
policy was thus halfway between tolerance and intolerance
and formed a link between the two. She was as tolerant
of belief as she was intolerant of conduct and by so doing
came nearest to carrying out the wishes of the majority
of the English people,
Her own persecutions did not begin until 1577, when
Cuthbert Mayncjthe first Catholic missionary, was exe-
cuted. On the Continent Catholics forgetting all about
their own intolerance professed indignation at tms and said
lyGOOgIC
ai6 TUDOR IDEALS
that persecution in England was denounced by heretics,
Turks and Infidels.^* A picture of the cruelties suffered
by English Catholics was hung at Noire Dame in Paris
where it was only removed by the king's order at the in-
stance of the British ambassador.
Intolerance was a satisfaction accorded to pubHc opin-
ion. The pressure exerted on the queen for the religjious
persecution of the Catholics, arose mainly from Puritan
groups, for unleavened democracy is often more intol-
erant than autocracy. The response of the crown to
popular opinion in the latter part of the Sixteenth Cen-
tury came in satisfying such demands as had been imposed
by the spirit of persecution. The Virgin Queen herself
found popularity in the harsh measures her government
took against those who did not conform. Cardinal Allen
could write of the missionaries yearly going out from the
seminaries at Rheims and Rome, to Turkey and the Indies
with no more danger than to England. "They are sent
to the Heathen to tell them there is no salvation without
Christ: they are sent to the English to tell them there is
no salvation without the Catholic Church. Whether they
die for the one or for the other, all is one matter to them." "
Yet many asked to be sent to England with only
the prospect of death before them. The history of Cath-
olic martyrs has no place here, but their courage and de-
votion deserves the highest praise. It was honoured even
by its enemies. Edmund Spenser pays a sympathetic
tribute to the courage of Catholic priests in Ireland who
came from Rome and from Spain, " by long toil and dan-
gerous transit hither, when they luiow peril of death
awaiteth them and no reward or riches is to be found, "
contrasting their zeal with the idleness of the Anglican
clergy." Mary Stuart could write to Mendoza in Nov.,
1584, that he should go ahead in his plot without any re-
gard to her own personal danger, for she would gladly
give up her life if she could thereby obtain the triumph
of the Catholic cause, and was ready to see her own son
lyGOOgIC
TOLERANCE AND PERSECUTION 217
dispossessed from his right to the throne because of his
heresy, preferring the "welfare of the church to the ag-
grandizement of my posterity." "
Statecraft imposed wilful cruelty. Lord Burleigh ad-
vised the queen to keep down the Catholics not on religious
grounds but as a matter of policy. If these were granted
greater liberties they would not be satisfied and would
think such tolerance proceeded from fear. To content
them would be to discontent faithful subjects." This
was the true reason. Burleigh had no wish to persecute
Catholics, but the spirit of persecution rested on popular
approval. The masses wanted it and the kindly treatment
of Catholics would have dissatisfied them. They
demanded that Elizabeth persecute the Catholics. A
sovereign so mindful of popularity as Elizabeth would
otherwise never have resorted to this.
Burleigh warned against going too far which led to
massacre and therefore to acts of despair, advising the
queen to make use of Catholic aid in the same way as
Frederick II did with Saracens. By modifying the rigour
of the oath to demanding readiness to bear arms against
all foreign princes invading England, he believed that the
adherence of non-Catholics could be obtained, and if any
priests refused to take this and were punished it could not
be said that they suffered for religion. A few Catholics
wrote to urge such tolerance, offering the example of
France under Henry IV, of Poland where no one's con-
science was forced, and of Germany where those of dif-
ferent creed lived side by side; men's bodies could be
driven but not their minds.
The astonishing fact remains that while the French
King was massacring Huguenots and Elizabeth perse-
cuting Catholics both continued to be friends. The queen
foreseeing that her persecution of Catholics might be in-
voked against her urged her ambassador in Paris to reply
that the rebellion in the North which had just been put
down, was only outwardly coloured with religion, but tiiat
lyGOOgIC
si8 TUDOR IDEALS
the Pope had made treason and obedience to his bulls syn-
onymous. In spite of the heat of religious controversies
the marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou
was r^arded as desirable. Staunch Protestants looked
upon it as "honourable, convenient, profitable and need-
ful." As the French prince was only a moderate Papist
and asked for the freedom of his own conscience and of
his "suites" it was felt that such a marriage would be con-
ducive to tolerance in religion. A letter of Burleigh to
Walsingham suggested, however, that in case the marriage
did not take place, religion be given as the reason. It was
often the pretence paraded to the world.
The long negotiations were, perhaps, never meant to
be taken too seriously. They reveal a perfunctory atti-
tude toward religion as b^ng far more a matter of the
state than of faith, although the queen declared it absurd
for herself and her husband to celebrate contrary beliefs
when this was not tolerated among her subjects. On the
duke's side it was remarked by his representative that
he had religious convictions, which were a good thing par-
ticularly in the case of princes "who have no other bridle
to stay them from evil. " " The massacre of St Barthol-
omew brought about a keener desire for intolerance in
England. Men like Sandys the Bishop of London wrote
to Burleigh advocating the immediate execution of Mary
of Scotland and the removal of Catholics from the vicin-
ity of the queen.
Elizabeth's personal feelings in the direction of toler-
ance made contemporaries accuse her of religious indiffisr-
ence. If she refrained from carrying out her preferences,
such hesitation was due to a characteristic caution which
listened to her subjects' wishes. The queen's ideas influ-
enced by those of her environment fluctuated with condi-
tions. Methods of expression though more restricted than
public opinion is to-day were articulate enough. Eliza-
beth's sagacity came in understanding when such clamour
had to be listened to and when it was to be curbed. With
lyGOOgIC
TOLERANCE AND PERSECUTION 219
few personal convictions save about her own prerogatives,
she always modified her preferences in accordance with
the pressure of the moment and showed herself tolerant
or intolerant as conditions demanded. Granting the facts
imposed by the peculiar circumstances of her birth, her
policy was one of religious opportunism with a personal
preference for tolerance in advance of her age. Her readi-
ness to concede freedom of conscience if not freedom of
worship marked a considerable advance, and paved the
way for future toleration. It was as far as the conserva-
tive liberalism of Queen Elizabeth's advisers thought wise
to go. In an age of conspiracy it was difficult to be rid of
the idea that men of a minority faith were inimical to the
welfare of the state. Although there might be no direct
challenge of supremacy yet indirectly even religion "divi-
deth in a sort and draweth from the state.""
Moderation was generally the rule among the upper
classes, and Essex said openly that in his opinion no one
should suffer death because of religion. But there exists a
kind of Gresham's law tn popular hatred, and the spread of
the Catholic reaction on the Continent provoked inevitable
reprisals in England. It is only necessary to read such nar-
ratives as that of Edward Underbill "the hot gospeller"
always eager to persecute when not himself persecuted,*"
for he never questioned Queen Mary's right to keep down
the new faith. Stubbes also complained that Catholics in
England were treated with overmuch leniency and even in
prison lived there like young princes.*' A Puritan griev-
ance against the bishops was due to the fact of these pray-
ing that all men without exception be saved and that all
travellers by sea be preserved, Turks not excepted.**
After the Moorish ambassadors received audience of the
queen, they could not proceed to the Levant as they wished
" for our merchants nor mariners will not carry them in
Turkey because they think it a matter odious and
scandalous to the work to be too friendly or familiar
with infidels." **
lyGOOgIC
VI. PURITANISM
The few pages given here to Puritanism are merely in-
tended to bridge over what would otherwise be a gap and
call attention to an omission rather than seek to fill it.
Puritanism as a conscious political force did not show
its head until later in the century, but Puritanism as an
inward religious feeling early realized its expression. Be-
fore the scission from Rome, the hope had been widely en-
tertained of effecting reform from within. At the Court of
Francis I, as in that of Navarre, and at the Court of Henry
VIII, a religious fervour had been prompted by the new
learning. Wyatt's Puritan tastes were revealed in his par-
aphrases of the Psalms breathing a spirit of repentance
for sin, and hope in the mercy of God whose kingdom lies
within the human heart. The Lutheran doctrine of the
importance of inner faith instead of outward good works
echoes in his lines
"Then seek no more out of thyself to find
The thing that thou hast sought so long before;
For thou shall feel it sticking in thy mind."
Surrey's paraphrases of Eccleslastes and the Psalms, ex-
press the same idea and makes one doubt the jesting inter-
pretation given to his adventure in shooting bolts mrough
London tradesmen's windows.
If Puritanism had remained confined to the Court it
would never have become the active force into which it
developed. Oddly enough its early history presents an
analogy to that of Renaissance culture. This, too, after
meeting with its first welcome at Court was unable to
develop there. The king's vicinity which provided an
admirable threshold for new ideas, was both too occupied
lyGOOgIC
PURITANISM »i
and too limited in its interests to extend to these more
than their original welcome. The charm of novelty acting
on keen intelligence favoured such reception, but only
gave ideas their first start. Beyond, they had to find their
own way through the nation, and their diffusion occurred
in proportion as they fitted themselves to its interest.
Puritanism by its early welcome, acquired a literary
flavour which remained associated with it and preserved a
certain grace to what otherwise often descended into ugly
intolerance. Its organization arose through quite dif-
ferent circumstances. During the Marian persecutions
when English reformers had to flee abroad they found
in Switzerland and along the Rhine, Church governments
which were those of small independent republics. Hie
fact that the city government in towns like Geneva and
Zurich had become theocracies offered examples not lost
on English Puritans when they returned to thdr own
country.
The Reformation by itself was insufficient to destroy
the medieval tradition of a clergy who were spiritual
nobles more concerned with administration than with
their pastoral duties. Larimer had attacked them for
n^lecting these. "How many unlearned prelates have
we now at this day . . . they hawk, they hunt, they
card, they dice, they pastime in their prelacies."' A
levelling tendency aimed at real or supposed abuses,
was then beginning to set in agunst the survival of cer-
tain ceremonies inherited from the Roman ritual. The
hierachy of the bishops was denounced for absentensm
and found themselves as much reviled for bdng a "hd-
lish rabble" as had ever been the Roman bishops.'
The Reformadon began by destroying the eccle«as-
tical fabric of authority. In the early years of Eliz-
abeth's reign the bishops felt uncertain about thdr por-
tion not knowing whether they were merely stop gaps to
be swept away or kept as part of the new institutions.
Elizabeth found utility in retaining them. The middle
lyGOOgIC
222 TUDOR IDEALS
course she steered appealed to the majority of her people
and saved them from excesses on ather side. Catholicism
represented tradition, but had the queen yielded to the
blandishments of Rome the breach from her subjects
would have been too great. Involuntarily the moderate
reformers would have turned to Puritanism with the likeli-
hood of a violent clash between the two extremes. The
sagacity of the queen's course lay in the gradual break
with the Vatican, which gave the time to affirm her own
authority and prevent civil war. The requirements of
conservative stability made her prefer a doctrine distant
alike from Papist and from Puritan.
Elizabeth was then endeavouring to rebuild the struc-
ture of the ancient church without its Roman head. The
Episcopal Apostolic succession was utilized, to strengthen
the principle of authority on which the new national
church reposed, and a divine right was invoked for this^ier-
archy by Richard Bancroft. The queen's support of the
Anglican Church was in line with her traditional conser-
vatism, whereas the Puritan effort had been directed "to
deprive the queen of her authority and give it to the peo-
ple." Much as Puritanism stood for tyranny in its atti-
tude toward the private life of the individual, it stood also
for political liberty. The early characteristics of the Pu-
ritans were, however, far different from what they later
became. When they first appeared, Leicester and Essex,
both of whom were sufficiently self-indulgent, protected
fhem at Court, though If Camden Is to be believed, many
noblemen favoured the movement because they hoped by
its means to obtain more of the wealth of the Church.*
Job Throckmorton, the supposed Martin Marprelate,
was no austere figure but one who took pleasure in life.
Arthur Golding, the translator of Ovid, was strongly im-
bued with the Puritan spirit and tried to conciliate his
paganism by proving Ovid to have been a disciple of
Pythagoras.
Persecution and the execution of Brownists and Ana-
lyGOOglC
PURITANISM 333
baptists, brought out the austere «dc of Puritanism.
The more human aspects of the early adherents were dis-
carded for a rigid discipline until their name became a
byword for the peculiar grimness attached to it. They
were r^arded by their enemies as "dissembling hypo-
crites." Their nasal twang was disliked. Sir Andrew
Aguecheek loathed them. It was said of the Puritan that
though he loved God with all his soul he hated his neigh-
bour with all his heart.* Their enemies declared that the
Puritan preachers won the peoples' affection by drawing
attention to the faults of those who filled the "higher
callings" and obtaining a reputarion for virtue by their
readiness to reprove the sins of others.* It was said that
the triumph of Puritanism would mean the overthrow of
learning, for the Puritan regarded degrees as only vun-
glory and enforced a permanent equality among ministers.
They brought a new spitit into English life, which un-
pleasant in its manifestations was to became a forerunner
of British democracy.*
The Puritan hostility to the bishops and wish for each
church to choose its own pastor seeihed anarchy to many.
To King James' maxim "no Bishops, no King" Harring-
ton added " no King, no nobility, no gentry." ' Elizabeu
persecuted them not for religion, but as a danger to the
state. The Puritans clamoured for a liberty miich they
were unwilling to grant others. Tlidr sombre Spirituality
appeared the same threat to the comfortable vi^ons of
the bishops as the spectre of socialism is to so many
modem minds.
Apart from its reli^ous aspect, Puritanism represented
the great levelling t^idency which in more recent times
has been known as democracy. Its stru^e agunst the
bishops was because these "made Kfitred Lords." Puri-
tanism was the expression of the people seeking to find a
spiritual government in closer touch with themselves.
Hence it was opposed by all those who feared such tenden-
cies. Bacon, for instance, found danger to the state in
lyGOOgIC
224 TUDOR IDEALS
their arguments. The working force of Puritan democracy
was still intolerant, roughshod, high-handed, and often
unfair. Yet the beginnings of the fight for constitutional
liberty under the Stuarts can be traced to the obscure
attacks on the institutions of the English Church under
Elizabeth.
The hostility of Puritanism toward the stage has left a
dark recollection among lovers of letters. The exuberance
of the Renaissance spirit translated into the drama could
only arouse feelings of hostility among those who felt an
ascetic ideal. Nor was this peculiar to England. The
popularity of the stage made many who were far from
styling themselves Puritans, resent the idleness it pro-
voked, as well as the immorality of its subject-matter."
In England many divines preached against the stage,"
while the attacks of the pamphleteers savagely attacked
its immorality. Some tried to separate the good plays
from the bad. To conform himself to Puritan leanings,
Peele attempted to dramatize a biblical subject rendering
into blank verse chapters from the Bible. Others like
Fenton sharply distinguished between the ordinary drama
and the plays of scholars written to reprove Vice and
extol Virtue."
Out of this clash between the opposing forces of Puri-
tanism and love of lifej the spirit of England was to
develop.
lyGOOgIC
VII. FREE THOUGHT
Scepticism was more prevalent in the Middle Ages than
is supposed. Dante found atheists in hell, and the sporadic
growth of anonymous heresies whose recollection is pre-
served in the accusations of the Church, show that disbe-
lief was far from infrequent. This was more true of the
Continent and especially of Italy, than of England. The
intellectual ferment was there less active, though during
the Fifteenth Century curious manifestations of doubt
appear in other matters than faith. In his preface to
Malory, Caxton remarks that many believed King Arthur
a myth and the books about him mere fables.
Non-believers were far too prudent to leave public
defence of their doubt, but the wide diffusion of ancient
culture undoubtedly increased their numbers. WUiam of
Orange was commonly reputed an atheist, and Marshal
Strozzi died as he had lived, refusing the proffered sacra-
ments and with his last words declaring he would go the
way of every one else for six thousand years.
In England oddly enough a devout Catholic like More,*
was the first to mention the sceptics. In his "Utofna"
the only exception he made to liberty of faith, was against
the atheistic materialism whose sympathizers were to be
debarred from office, on the ground that as they believe in
nothing they would be prone to break laws they did not
fear. More, even found means to reconcile to reason the
difficulty about miracles, on the ground that though a
miracle is impossible in nature it is possible to God.*
The hostility to Rome caused the doctrine of the Eucharist
to be held up to ridicule in a spirit of coarse jest.' The
attempt to destroy the mystery was, however, an tiXatho-
lic and had nothing in common with free thought.
The atheist in the Sixteenth Century lives chiefly by
lyGOOgIC
226 TUDOR IDEALS
those who attacked him. Latimer, for instance, de-
nounced the Epicureans who believe that "after this life
there is neither hell nor heaven."* Such opinions were al-
leged to have been introduced by the ItaJianated English-
man who found in religion only an instrument of govern-
ment and regarded Christianity as a fable. "They make
Christ and his Gospel only serve Civil policy . . . they
mock the Pope; they rail on Luther." * Atheism became
a word no longer unknown to plain Englishmen.
Free thought was regarded as a plant of foreign growth.
In an age when religious passion ran high, many openly
declared that, whoever laid stress on religion was a fool
and still greater if he gave up to it any of his wealth;
but if he sacrificed his life he was stark mad.' The current
of rationalism had been reinforced by classical example.
Its precepts counselled caution for it was dangerous to
advocate these openly. Their existence points to the
difficulty of generalizing about an age or reading into it
only one tendency without taking account of other factors.
Some who entertained unorthodox views were deemed
atheists, perhaps because they wished to lessen the im-
portance of religion in the State,^ though G. Cranmer
writing to Hooker in 1598 denounced such "godless
politics." *
Queen Elizabeth herself was described as "an atheist"*
because of her reluctance to go to extremes. Her views
can best be judged from the spirit of the negotiations with
respect to the French marriage. While the queen cared
nothing for the duke's conversion to the Church of Eng-
land, she was at first insistent on his not having the mass
said in his household and accompanying her to church.
She would not press him, however, to any sudden change
of religion as this might cause him to be reputed an
atheist.'" A possible claimant to the throne like Lord
Derby, was accused of keeping his creed in darkness.
" Some think him to be of all three religions and others of
none." " It was questionable whether this opinion about
t: Go Ogle
FREE THOUGHT 227
him was beneficial or not. In Scotland the R^^t Moray
was accused of taking religion as a cloak to enrich himsm
with the church spoils.
In an age of compulsory uniformity^ the difiiiuon of free
thought must have been wider than is often supposed.
The accusation of atheism was a favourite charge. Leices-
ter was accused of being " of no religion " " and of finding
advantage in all. Euphues' talk with Atheos suggests a
wide agnosticism in the courtly circle. One Carleton, who
wrote an essay on religion in England, divided its popular
tion into Papists, Atheists and Protestants declanng the
third class tnc least numerous." Whoever differed in
creed was at once accused of such godlessness. Thomas
Cooper denounced the atheists who hated the bishops and
who professed religion without caring about it.'* In the
Puritan camp John Penry spoke of the prevalence of athe-
ism in Wales." A great deal of this supposed atheism was
only the mildest doubt and did not deserve the violence of
invecrivc. Most scepticism remained a current without
literary expression.
Bacon while apparently confuting atheism, was not
out of sympathy with the spirit of doubt. One of its few
apologies is to be found in John Bate's *'The Portraiture c^
Hypocrisy" printed in 1589, with its dialogue between a
Christian and an atheist who is left unconvinced. The
atheist stands for Epicureanism, and his ptnnt of view ia
not unlike that of the modem agnostic who without know-
ing what to believe yet leads a righteous life.". . . The
writer's avowed purpose was to show the hypocrisy of
so many Englishmen who think they have perfonned
their duty if they go to church "for fashion's salu, hear
a little and pracrise less."
Hamlet remains the best type of Sixteenth Century ag-
nosticism. Conforming outwardly, his doubt was intdlec-
tual and restrained. Open pn^es^ona of scepddam
were rare. A certain Richard Cholmeley who had once
been in the service of the Coundl, orffkoized a ctunpanj
lyGOOgIC
228 TUDOR IDEALS
of "atheists" who, it was said, professed blasphemous
opinions and entertained subversive designs. Harriott
the mathematician who had been with Raleigh, Matthew
Roydcn the poet, Marlowe and Kyd were associated with
this.and the two latter were arrested by the government
which took alarm at the spread of atheism."
Marlowe's unbelief was notorious, though the trumped-
up charges made against him by a hired ruffian in the
attempt to institute a prosecution for blasphemy failed by
their excess. But Dr Faustus declares: "Come.1 think
Hell's a fable" and the belief in punishment in the after
life fit for "old wives tales."
In the "Jew of Malta "Machiavelli counts "relipon but
a childish toy" and in Tamburlaine, King Sigismund who
has just sworn alliance on the Christ, attacks his late ally
as soon as he is in difficulties because of not being bound
to maintain faith with infidels. Marlowe though he es-
caped the law, intentionally makes the pretence of religion
an excuse for unrighteousness. Francis Kett, who had
attended the same College at Cambridge, was burned at
the stake for his unorthodox views about the Trinity
and divinity of Christ. Benet College contained the seeds
of scepticism, but Oxford also was accused of being a cen-
tre of free thought."
The end of the Sixteenth Century witnessed a far wider
diffusion of agnosticism than the beginning. The feeling
against Raleigh was increased by the suspicion of his im-
piety, for agnosticism was never a piopular profession."
Essex on the scaffold thanked God that he had never
been an atheist or Papist, but in the arraignment against
him it was said that his companions came from both
categories. The association of such extremes is not to be
taken too literally, but shows that any departure from
respect for established authority was laid down either
to atheism or papistry. The increased stability resting
on strengthened foundations of order caused free opinion
to be restrained. With a wild bohemian like Marlowe
lyGOOgIC
FREE THOUGHT 229
full of youthful exuberance, it burst. With most others
it was concealed behind outward conformity, though occa-
sional evidences of doubt crop out. Sir Richard Barckley
who professed belief, quoted the story of the Indian Chief
who, hearing from De Soto that he was a Christian come to
instruct savages in the knowledge of the law, replied " If
thy God command thee to run over other men's coun-
tries, robbing, burning, killing and omitting no kind of
wickedness, we will tell you in a few words that we can
neither believe in him or his laws.""
lyGOOgIC
VIII. PACIFISM AND WAR
An age which has left its record of horrors, also expressed
ideals of brotherhood and of mercy unheard since the de-
cay of the ancient world. Two reasons explain this par-
adox. The power of the centralized state supplied it
with instruments of force on a scale previously unknown,
and like to-day the capacity for good and evil became
enormously increased. The evil came Irom the practical
enforcement of policy methodically organized and re-
lentlessly carried out. The good emanated from the ap-
peal of an ancient civilization at last understood.
For the first time human conscience allowed instincts
of compassion to mature. However rudimentary the ex-
pression of European public opinion may seem, however
slight was its real power, the fact that it existed in a
modern sense and was not merely the dead voice of medi-
eval scholasticism possesses enormous importance. Eight-
eenth Century ideas of human perfectibility and brother-
hood date from the Renaissance.
Because a noble hope is confined to a minority unable
to apply it practically, does not mean that it is n^ligible.
The action of a majority is not, necessarily, a safer test
of permanent value. Historians have so generally confined
their study to the governing class, that they tend to
disregard other expressions whose influence cannot be
brushed aside because of cherishing ideals out of relation
with the necessities of the time.
Hie ideal of peace was not born in the Renaissance.
Medieval political philosophy with its conception of the
Christian republic and its universal dream of the Empire
had often expressed it. A poet like Gower inveighs agamst
the horror of war.' Sir David Lyndsay calls shame on
those who take the name' of Christians to make war.*
lyGOOgIC
PACIFISM AND WAR 231
The pacifism of the Sixteenth Century for the first time
saw things in a more modern light. Erasmus raised his
voice against war, even with the Turks, on the ground of
their being men for whose salvation Christ had suffered.
No recent argument against war can be stronger than
some of the Sixteenth Century writings on the subject,*
or Breughel's paintings of its horrors.
Morc's traveller returning from Utopia contrasts the
warlike pleasures of princes in Europe with the peace-
fulness of Utopians. They are averse to alliances because
these tend to make people believe that without them na-
tions are enemies. The fellowship of nature is strong and
men are more surely knir tc^ether by love than by cov-
enant. Utopians waged war solely in defence of their own
country or "to deliver from the yoke and bondage of
tyranny some people that be therewith oppressed."*
They saved their enemies' land as much as possible, and
obliged them only to pay as indemnity the cost of the war.
Compassion for their foes is not the least modern of the
Utopian traits. "They do no less pity the base and com-
mon sort of their enemies' people than they do their own;
knowing that they be driven and enforced to war against
their wills by the furious madness of their princes and
heads. " *
A few men cherished a noble ideal in the seclusion of
their studies. But how difFerejit was reality. The chap-
ter of cruelty did not vary much from the history of war
before or since. Amid much indifference to suffering,
there are occasional examples of kindness shown to the
enemy, perhaps, on grounds of policy. How far were
instincts of compassion aroused, how far were these merely
dictated by the wish to appear conciliatory? After Sol-
way Moss the Scottish prisoners were most hospitably
entertained in London.
The treatment of captives is among the tests of human-
ity. It was a grievance of the French that their prisoners
in England were badly used,' in contrast with the Duke of
lyGOOgIC
232 TUDOR IDEALS
Guise who found himself warmly praised for the courtesy
he displayed to the Enghsh captured at Guisnes.^
Cruelty was oftener the rule. Somerset.whose domes-
tic government was humane, carried out his expedition
against Scotland with a ruthlessness which shocked even
Englishmen. De Selve, the French Ambassador, remon-
strated with the Protector because of the inhuman treat-
ment shown French prisoners captured in the Scottish
wars and protested against the execution of the Spaniards
taken at the siege of Yester. Somerset explained the first
on the ground of reprisals for the alleged bad treatment of
the English on the French galleys, but the second, more
difficult, was put down to the fact that these had not been
promised their lives.'
Instincts of compassion were commended, but ruth-
lessness excited no indignation. In Lord Hertford's ex-
pedition against Scotland in 1544, it seemed natural that
Edinburgh should be burned to the ground and the con-
temporary chronicle relates that the English light horse-
men left neither village nor house nor stack of com
unburnt within seven miles of the capital. There is less
cause for surprise at such acts than at the indifference with
which they were told. At Dunbar, the citizens believed
themselves safe from the English who refrained from vi-
olence until the moment of their departure, when the in-
habitants being in bed they set fire to the town "and in
their first sleep closed in with fire the men, women, and
children were suffocated and burnt."*
The horrors of warfare in a ravaged country excited the
compassion of an old soldier like La Noue who tried
thereby to impress its evils. Languet wrote Sidney of
the madness of those who longed for a reputation
founded on bloodshed and believed there was no glory
save that connected with the destruction of mankind.
He entreated Sidney to employ his own particle of
divinity "for the preservation and not the destruction
of man." "* Languet indignant at the butchery going
lyGOOgIC
PACIFISM AND WAR 233
on in the Low Countries could write of Alva that nothing
vexed him more than having left survivors of his cruelty.
The Spanish atrocities shocked those who like Gascoigne
admired their courage and warlike skill. His account of
the Sack of Antwerp in 1576 helped to arouse the violent
hatred against them. Their cruelty in the colonies also
revolted the English. Las Casas had censured his own
countrymen for their savagery, and his English translator
remarked that posterity would doubt "that ever so
barbarous or cruel a nation hath been in the world." "
In England, the feeling of humanity was applauded as a
national virtue. The virtues of the English were brought
into relief and writers refused to admit that they had ever
been guilty of acts of cruelty in war." Cruelty when
committed was less a principle than a policy which came
easily to the rougher nature of the age, and was often tried
alternately with more humane practice. Philip II having
failed with Alva tried conciliation with Parma. Henry
VIII cruel by nature used a conciliatory policy in Ireland,
while the reverse was true of Elizabeth. To those ac-
quainted with local conditions then as now, mildness
seemed an error and only the strong hand impressed."
The charge of wanton savagery cannot be laid at the
door of England in comparison with Spain, but there were
occasions when English ferocity could not easily have been
surpassed. The resistance of the Irish stirred their worst
passions, and cold-blooded massacres more than once
disgraced British arms. Such wholesale butchery as the
murder of the Spanish and Italian expedition to Ireland
after its surrender shocked even contemporary opinion,
and was only explained on the ground that the English
lacked food wherewith to feed the prisoners. There
were some Englishmen Hke Sir William Herbert who felt
ashamed that instead of Justice and civilization for the
poor inhabitants, the occupation should have led to such
disgraceful excesses.
lyGOOgIC
IX. THE FEELING OF COMPASSION
Not the absence of cruelty but the fact that for the first
time it stirred men to indignation, made the Sixteenth
Century remarkable. Practice and some theory sustained
ruthless enforcement of policy and law, but there were
glimmerings of humanity and the birth of an opinion
which was gradually to exercise a civilizing influence.
Thomas More wrote that the death penalty was too great
a punishment for theft and by surpassing the needs of
justice proved injurious to the Commonwealth. All the
goods in the world could not make up for human life.'
No jurist ever made a clearer distinction between the
taking of life and the taking of property.
Later in the century, the Catholic controversialist
Starkey wrote that it was a disgrace for England " to be
governed by the laws given to us of such a barbarous
nation as the Normans" and that hanging men for petty
theft was both against nature and humanity.* The
Frenchman Perlin who visited England in the middle of
the century, had been shocked by the cruelty of its justice
which he contrasted unfavourably with the French where
punishment was proportioned to the crime.* Spenser
condemned the application of English law to Ireland.
Laws, he thought, ought not to be imposed on men but
fashioned in accordance with the manners and conditions
of the people for whom they are intended. "No laws of
man are just but as in regard of the evils which they
prevent and the safety of the Commonwealth which they
provide for." '
Although prisons were not reformed until a compar-
atively recent date their abuses were even then deplored
by some. Brynklow inveighed against the cruelty shown
to offenders in prison whose lodging was " too bad for hogs
lyGOOgIC
THE FEELING OF CXDMPASSION 235
and as for their meat it is evil enough for d<^s."' In
Stubbes' opinion death was preferable to imprisonment in
subterranean dungeons.* Some efforts were made to
bring relief to these unfortunates. Latimer relates that
Master Bilney used to spend his time in visiting prisoners
and sick.^ Toward the end of the century imprisonment
for debt was regarded with disapproval.*
The practice of torture currently used to elicit informa-
tion and, occasionally in punishment, was revolting. In
1581 when Alexander Brian suffered martyrdom with
Fathers Campion and Sherwin, pins were thrust under his
nails and water was denied him till he was driven to lick
the moisture of the wall.' Executions with all their
horrible details were too frequent to affect the popular
imagination. Glancing at the pages of any contemporary
diary one notices how perfunctorily they are related."
Camden briefly narrating the horrible details of Babing-
ton's execution remarks that it was done "not without
some note of cruelty." "
A tradition of benevolence had been handed down in
England from time immemorial. The earliest hospitals
probably owed their oiigin to similar institutions in Italy.
St. Bartholomew's was founded by a pilgrim on his return
from Rome,and several benevolent foundations in London
trace a medieval origin. Peele relates how Edward I
returning from the Crusade established an institution for
his disabled men.^*
Legacies to hospitals and for the poor were frequent."
Henry VII, who built the Savoy hospital for one hundred
poor persons, also intended to erect a targe hospital at
Bath on the model of one in Paris. The deficiencies of
organized charity were to a great extent made up by the
broad hospitality everywhere displayed. It was a recog-
nized duty of the almoner of a castle to dole to the poor the
viands left over." Stow relates how Edward, Earl of
Derby, fed regularly sixty aged poor and on certain occa-
sions gave drink and money to thousands. The Lady
lyGOOgIC
236 TUDOR IDEALS
Margaret of Richmond maintained twelve poor people in
her house and attended them herself when they fell ill."
Bishop Fisher's doors were always open to the needy, and
Wolsey even in disgrace kept open house to all comers rich
and poor." Such examples could be multiplied. Thomas
Cromwell, little of a humanitarian, daily fed 200 people,
observing that "ancient and charitable custom as all
prelates, noblemen or men of honour and worship his
predecessors had done before him." " Nor was it only
among great officials that this practice was observed. The
Ballad, on the death of Lord Huntington, says in his
praise
" His gates were still open the strangers to feed
and comfort the succourless always in need." "
Latimer wrote of his father that though a poor yeoman he
gave hospitality to his poorer neighbours." The practice
ofbenevolence was traditional, butinadequate to grappling
with the larger problems of poverty and unemployment
which the economic changes of the century brought
about. Latimer referred to the then owner of his father's
farm who was no longer able " to give a cup of drink to the
poor," and how conditions had changed from former days,
when everyone left money for the relief of those in want
and to help needy students at the University;"
The increase in poverty was attributed to the suppres-
sion of the monasteries, which had before done much for
relief but whose inmates, now cast on the highroad, added
to the vagrancy. Rabid reformers like Brynklow and
Simon Fish ended by regretting the passing of the monks
who had never raised rents and always succoured the
needy.^' Misery excited compassion, and a conscious
feeling of pity stirred men. The inner history of the
age still remains obscure, but it is probable that if the
economic change had been less brutally effected, the
numerous risings in the name of religion might not hayc
found supporters among the discontented.
lyGOOgIC
THE FEELING OF COMPASSION 237
An active feeling of duty to the poor became notice-
able. Its expressions range from the sympathy of men
in high position like More, Elyot,*' and even Wolsey,
who made lawyers plead gratis for all poor suitors** till it
reached popular preachers like Lever and Fish who pro-
claimed relief to the needy as a duty."
Practical reformers like Crowley and Brynklow urged
the appointment of medical practitioners in every town to
look after the poor without pay " and proposed that a
certain number of children in each city should be brought
up at the expense of the community.**
The plans of social reformers were rarely constructive.
Attacking abuses they had less in mind a feasible plan for
reform than a return to the medieval structure of a society
where the relations from peasant to king were established
beforehand. Although revolted by the effects of the great
upheaval which had transformed every class, and been
the apparent cause for so much misery, they had no real
plan to suggest. The poor were under the special protec-
tion of the king and to take this away was against the
royal honour."
Edward VI was greatly interested in the condition of
the needy. Hospitals which depended on monastic
foundations had suffered confiscation under his father's
reign and in spite of the petitions by the city of London
had not been restored. With the new king such founda-
tions for the sick and for poor children were once more
established " and he himself gave up the palace of Bride-
well as a workhouse for the destitute.
After a sermon by Bishop Ridley exhorting the rich to
relieve the afflicted of their distress, the king was so much
moved that he wrote to the mayor and a committee was
appointed to consider the question. It resulted in perhaps
the first large attempt made in England to deal with the
problem of poverty. The poor were divided into three
main classes, those by impotency, by casualty, and the
thriftless, and each of these in turn was subdivided into
lyGOOgIC
238 TUDOR IDEALS
three sub-classes. The first by impotency included (l)
orphans and paupers' children, (2) the aged blind, and
lame, (3) the permanently diseased, like lepers. The poor
by casualty, comprised (4) the wounded soldiers, (5) the
decayed householders, (6) the sufferers from serious illness.
Lastly the thrifdess poor included (7) the rioters and
wasters, (8) vagabonds and vagrants, (9) prostitutes.**
Houses were established to provide for the different kinds
of poor. Vagabonds and i(Ue strumpets were to be cha»>
tised and compelled to labour at Bridewell. The decayed
householder could be looked after in his own home, but
lepers were to be s^egated outside the city. Edward VI
contributed liberally to the annual support of these new
institutions.
With private benevolence on the wane, a new desire
for organization and state direction of charity had been
introduced. Like so many other measures of the time it
was rudimentary, spasmodic, and incomplete. The poor
laws passed during the Sixteenth Century shock us by
their harshness which in certain cases condemned vaga-
bonds to slavery. But they evince a desire to grapple
with the problem of relief, nationally instead of locally.
The spirit of altruism which had before been theprovinceof
casde and monastery now passed to the state although the
state was unprepared to assume its new duty. Tha transi-
tion which took place was a necessary link in the chun,
before real progress could be accomplished.
Provision was made for the aged and the impotent poor
at the charge of the parish, and the curate was ordered
to remind his congr^ation of their charitable duty to
these. Laws were passed from time to time fixing local
responsibility as a general principle. Holinshed comments
at length on the poor laws and the weekly collections
taken in every parish of the realm." Many gave and left
their money freely for charity, while benevolent societies
like that of "The Chest" at Chatham in which Haw-
kins and Drake found interest, were also established.
lyGOOgIC
THE FEELING OF COMPASSION 239
The feeling of compassion was growing. Men b^an to
feel more strongly the need of helping their fellow crea-
tures.^* Rosalind bids Brion spend a year tending the
afflicted in hospitals. The extremes of poverty existed
and the Sixteenth Century mind was unable to grap-
ple successfully with the vast problem. Stubbes could
write feelingly about the miserable condition of the poor
who lay starving in the streets of London, while people
spent fortunes on dress.*^ Such misery was all the more
impressive because a new chord of humanity had been
awakened in England. Benevolence was no longer the
care of monk and knight or even of rich city merchants,
but of the entire population.
lyGOOgIC
X. MORALITY
It is fortunately impossible to cast a nation's morals into
statistical form, but a subject which touches so inti-
mately the soul of the people cannot be dismissed because
of its evasive nature, nor confined solely within the wall
of sex.
The early moral evolution of Tudor England is difficult
to discuss as soon as one leaves the common groundwork
of all ages. The time was still dumb and inarticulate.
The human outlook in England at the end of the Middle
Ages was peculiarly sombre, with little to elevate, to at-
tract or to redeem.
The tendency of medieval life had been to make rigid
the framework of society. Under such conditions the
value of personality was depressed and man became largely
absorbed by caste. Even morality yielded to the oppres-
sion of such ideas, and human beings became the chattels
of a system which they had helped to form. Freedom
from such tyranny came only gradually through the
crumbling of a structure which had lost its vitality.
When the discipline of an order is relaxed, its constituent
parts become free to assert themselves. The weakness of
the feudal system grew apparent by the lawlessness which
set in as soon as its balance was upset. Anarchy is the un-
licensed form of individualism. But political changes were
only the outward expression for moral ones. During those
intermediate stages between periods of great change, ideas
turn fluid. When they harden, again something has
altered although the consciousness of what this is, may
not at once become apparent.
When Englishmen began to feet their awakening, the
moral individualism which made men think and Judge>
lyGOOgIC
MORALITY 241
was almost a novel sensation. It had not been unknown
during the Middle Ages but it could never then take deep
root because the means of rapid diffusion and organization
against established institutions were still lacking. In the
early Sixteenth Century, the crown was pleased to find a
new born public opinion diry:ted on moral grounds against wnJ'JJ^*''
the monasteries in whose destruction it hoped to find profit.
Monastic abuses seemed unpardonable to the early Six-
teenth Century because they were the abuses of another
age while evils incident to their suppression were those of
the time and therefore appeared less offensive to con-
temporaries.
How far such abuses were justified is hardly the ques-
tion. Catholic historians have proved that the monas-
teries were far from being such sinks of iniquity as con-
temporary opinion represented them. Their real sin lay
in having ceased to be in vital relation with the needs
df the people. The growing popular consciousness turned
with sound instinct but false reason against institutions
which no longer justified their existence. Skelton who is
as bad a poet as he is an interesting critic of the age, ex-
pressed the feeling of resentment against the comfortable
wealth of the monasteries and the neglect of bishops who
had become heedless of their flocks' welfare.
In England and Scotland the friars were the butt for
the moral censure of the time. A new public opinion
formed by different currents felt its strength by uniting
against an unpopular and rich institution of foreign ori^n
and partially under foreign control. Yet there is little to
prove that the evils pointed out were more the rule than
the exception. Undoubtedly any iron law applied to hu-
man beings often in the most inhuman manner, is certain
to provoke a revolt hidden or open on the part of natures
who find themselves enmeshed in a web where they can-
not resf but from which they are unable to escape.
Herein, must be found the defence for many of the lapses
from conventional standards which were eagerly seized
lyGOOgIC
242 TUDOR IDEALS
upon by enemies of the system. Where monasticism
failed to impose its discipline it provoked an apparent
immorality which was in no way characteristic, but more
often a reaction from a system too far removed from life.
To judge such exceptions as representative of the whole
or as injurious to the population, is to distort the facts.
Although morality provided the excuse which could unite
fanarical reformers eager to sweep away the past, and
rapacious courtiers eager to divide the spoils, it was not
the real reason which made desirable the suppression of
the monasteries. Morals were no better and in many
respects worse after this had been accomplished.
The immorality of earlier times had been largely caused
by the existence of definite unnatural circumstances.
The new immorality was one of individual license and
greed caused by the sudden removal of former conditions
and untempered by the restraints df anything more than
a spasmodic public opinion.
The evils attached to institutions change shape after
decay. Morals ceased to form part of a rigid system but
were increasingly attached to the individual whose actions,
for better or for worse, became freer. Human bangs
were no longer left under a fixed discipline. A new con-
science and new appetites were awakened. The moral
nature of man became immensely extended. The old
sanctions had largely disappeared or been transformed
and another order had not yet arisen. The extension of
fresh interests, the acquisition of wealth, the introduc-
tion of new fashions, the opening of other perspecrivcs
were as many avenues . which called into play instincts
moral and immoral. We are too prone to confine the
latter to questions of sex, whereas they affect the entire
nature of man. And human nature always reacts to the
the spur of fresh opportunity.
For the vast majority who did not fall to depths of sin
or rise to heights of saintiiness, the rule of conduct came
rather from a mingled sense of honour, patriotism and in-
lyGOOglC
terest. Among the upper classes the conduct of life was no
longer shaped by rigid rule, but by a variety of circum-
stances still undefined or largely unwritten, but which had
little to do with religion sanctions. The charges of atheism
levelled against Thomas Cromwell or Queen Elizabeth
arose from the perception of their individualism. The
Renaissance did not willingly betray its own secrets, and
the defence for the conduct of individuals found no
written apology.
The age was marked by parallel movements which as-
sumed contradictory forms. The growth of luxury and
the introduction of foreign refinements aided the pursuit
of pleasure as circumstances, which if they did not directly
make for immorality were yet associated therewith.
Individualism ran riot on both sides and the abuse of
moralists proved more violent than the misdeeds attacked.
In satire, sermon, tract, and pamphlet, the outburst ten-
ded to mould a new public opinion. Moral pleas will al-
ways unite the mass against alleged vices which remain
dumb. Those who dislike the foreign origin of luxury
with its supposedly pernicious influence on morals vented
their instinctive preferences by roundly abusing whatever
came from abroad.'
In every age or land it is easy to draw up a calendar of
vice and call it typical. A certain residue of evil will al-
ways exist without enduring harm, but nothing is more
misleading than to overemphasize this. Vice and virtue
are floating instincts whose expression and volume vary
with circumstance whenever conditions put new dress
on old sins. In an ^e like the Sixteenth Century, high
virtue was often accompanied by vice.
In matters of sex, such knowledge as we possess of its
worthies' intimate life, suggest neither severe standards
nor unusual laxity. In England the world of courtesans
never assumed the importance it did in Italy. No Ver-
onica Franco graces the annals of its cultivation, and ic
always remained degraded and hidden from view, with-
lyGOOglC
244 TUDOR IDEALS
out the brilliancy or ostentation it tended to assume in
Latin countries.
To suggest that the liberdnage of the court was not
representative of England is to utter the commonest of
platitudes, but if one appropriates its virtues it is unfair
to reject the remainder. Certainly the individual who,
in circles of the court, willingly conformed himself to
the discipline of courage and when necessary of sacrifice,
could in other respects be allowed wide latitude without
the nation being the worse for it. That vice may have
grown during England's heroic age is not unlikely for
it is usually associated with wealth and leisure. Less ap-
parent to contemporary observers was the fact of its
accompaniment by new virtues. Vice by itself has never
ruined a nation except when unrelieved by qualities.
Rome in the Augustan age was, probably, far more im-
moral than four centuries later.
Englishmen in the Sixteenth Century were Utde better
or worse than at other times. The violent outbursts of
Puritans were largely partisan and John Knox' private
life proves that even in his circle men were susceptible to
feminine charm.
lyGOOgIC
XI. THE FAMILY
Th e Sixteenth Century man who asserted himself" success-
fully in new fields, discovered greater difficulty as soon as
he clashed against an accepted institution. Individual
freedom is difficult to attain when domestic relations are
imposed by a rigorous law. The family at such times
exercises a pressure which makes for restricting personal
liberty. It tends to create a mechanical conception of
human intercourse, depresses the value of personality, and
sanctions an exaggerated development of conventions
which have arisen out of natural human relations. The
spirit of Tudor England, in many respects conducive to
freedom, and in some even to license, remained in others
enough under the influence of a medieval past to accept
conventional family relationships based on material
advantage regardless of preference or of personal happi-
ness.
Long recognized institutions developed this feeling and
contributed to reactions of laxity in other respects. In the
"Paston Letters" one reads that Stephen Scrope was sold
by his stepfather Sir John Fastolf to the Chief Justice of
England, Sir William Gascoigne, for 500 marks, and later,
when he had been disfigured for life, bought back again.
"He bought me and sold me as a beast."' Foreigners were
impressed by the lack of family affection in England. A
mother remarks casually of her daughter being beaten
" twice in one day and her head broken in two or three
places." * Children were sent to be brought up in the
houses of strangers. Thomas More, after he had finished
his first Latin studies was placed by his father in Cardinal
Morton's household where he served at table.* Boys
were thought to learn better manners in strangers' houses.
lyGOOgIC
246 TUDOR IDEALS
but the Italian traveller set down the reason to lack of
family affection, although More's own household later
offered a conspicuous exception.
The system of wards in chancery for whom marriages
were regularly arranged, arose from the slight value
attached to human personality. The brother of the Duke
of Suffolk, a lad of eighteen, was boarded out to a widow of
fifty, whom he married.* Contemporaries condemned the
practice of wards as leading to adultery and divorce.*
It shocked the better minds of the age. "Our old barbar-
ous custom of wards must be abrogated," says Cardinal
Pole, "as it destroys true love in matrimony." •
But marriage was hardly ever r^arded as a matter of
affection. The mechanical conception of human relations
prevailed which caused family ties to seem a question of
barter and convenience. Royal marriages, to-day, are
often r^arded in this light. Yet even these no longer go
so far as Henry the Seventh, who after the death of his
wife, thought of marrying his widowed daughter-in-law,
Katherine of Aragon, and when this fell through, was not
averse to marriage with her sister the Mad Juana in spite
of her insanity. That the most cautious of men and most
exemplary of husbands could entertain such ideas, shows
that he did not anticipate that they would meet with any
serious criricism.
The free play of human inclination was rarely able to
assert its rights in the face of rigid ideas of obligation
surrounding marriage. Thomas More had been desirous
to wed Colet's second daughter but on reflecting that the
first would feel slighted at seeing the younger preferred to
herself in marriage, he changed his affections lor her elder
sister.^ Child marriages provided another cause for
frequent unhappiness.* Lord Mountjoy, when he re-
turned to England with Erasmus, had been married for
more than two years, while his child wife remained under
her father's roof. Surrey is said to have been married at
sixteen. Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger at fifteen.
lyGOOgIC
THE FAMILY 247
A moralist like Latimer deplored the evil of marriages
which took place only because they joined "land to land
and possession to possessions." '
Where such slight respect was entertained for human
happiness, Henry VIII's personal immorality was not
without its good effects. The mechanical concqition of
the family which had strongly marked all social life, was
in his case at least replaced by ideas depending on more
human inclinations. His whims it is true, were pushed to
an outrageous exaggeration and darkened by cruelty and
crime. Yet paradoxical as it may seem, the glaring
immorality attending the royal uxoriousness, was in cer-
tain respects more conducive to moral betterment than
the pure family life of Henry VII. Where the father
built his domestic relations solely on a foundation of
interest, the son by giving rein to his basest instincts freed
the individual from the oppression of the sole wish for
material advantage. In spite of a personal immorality he
helped to introduce healthier ideas of free selection.
His influence went further than is suspected. TTie
King's marriage to Anne Boleyn has been narrated from
every point of view save that in following the inclination
of his heart, he was unconsciously expressing the modem
idea of individual choice. Cutting loose from the earlier
immorality of sordidness, the king's example, bad as it
was, aided to restore the free volition of man in the great
relations of life. To his credit, he accepted the same ideas
in others of his family and to the surprise of many ac-
quiesced in his sister the widowed Queen of France marry-
ing a lately ennobled commoner whom he made his bosom
friend. The royal example was typical of the Renaissance
by its assertion of human rights and its substitution of the
individual for the collective interest. Katherine Parr,
herself, the chastest of ladies, after burying three husbands
married a fourth only four months after the death of
Henry VIII.
In domestic relations people felt increasingly that they
lyGOOgIC
248 TUDOR IDEALS
were human beings and not pieces who fitted into a caste.
The Duchess of Suffolk after the misadventures of her
family from Lady Jane Grey to Lady Mary who had
married Keys the groom porter at the Court, "herself
forgetting the nobility of her lineage had married Adrian
Stokes a mean gentleman to her dishonour but for her
security." " A modern mind like Sir Henry Wotton's
contrasted the freer English practice with the German
who sought in matrimony to equal his title and regarded
marriage with a commoner's daughter as a blot on the
family. " England is more lighthearted in these cases and
even the greatest women have the destiny to match with
their own servants,"
Henry VIII influenced his subjects' ideas in contra-
dictory ways. The effect of the royal divorce upon the
English people is not unnaturally regarded as one of the
touchstones of its morals. It was so interwoven with
political and religious threads, that it cannot be judged
solely in this light. Undoubtedly the king setring Kather-
ine aside on a flimsy pretext, disturbed many subjects who
felt human pity for an innocence which had done no wrong.
If his action had been more rapid and less concerned wiui
seeking papal sanction for ms conduct, the awe tin ?
inspired by the prince was so great that censure would
have held its wings. The long dragged out divorce pro-
ceedings caused an awakened moral feeling which sim-
mered through his reign, till the habit of judging royalty
became familiar to the ideas of the age.
How far the royal example reacted on the nation is not
easy to establish. By itself it was a sensational develop-
ment of the new spirit freeing human volition. Henry
VIII, by temperament the most despotic of men, would
doubtless have been the last to recognize that he was
preparing the ground for the liberty of others, with whom
his own immoral license might become a moral order.
Often the most commonplace occurrences in an age are the
most difficult to discern. Forming part of the unwritten
lyGOOgIC
THE FAMILY 249
code of life the memory disappears as soon as the tradition
alters.
During the Sixteenth Century, although relics of the past
hke the ward system survived in family Ufe, Its abuses were
no longer so flagrant. As is often the case in a long drawn
silent contest affecting not different classes but the same
class at different ages, a kind of compromise was reached
which must have satisfied the ne^s of the majority.
There are indications that others beside the king wanted
their freedom of choice. Changes which seemed so repre-
hensible to old-fashioned moralists were a sign of progress.
R(^er Ascham could write "Our time is so far from that
old discipline and obedience as now, not only young
gentlemen but even very girls dare without all fear though
not without open shame, where they list and how they
list marry themselves in spite of father, mother, God, good
order and all." " In Scotland, Lyndsay at heart a mediev-
alist in spite of his reforming propensities, was scandaliz^
at the "bastard bairns of state spiritual" marrying those
of noble blood, and would have each order marry only
among themselves with the penalty for nobles of degra-
dation from their rank." The condemnation of such
marriages is proof of what was then taking place.
Ancient ideas which find support in self-interest are
tardy in their decay. But new thoughts of human freedom
and dignity were in the air. Amid disappearing traditions
human personality shapes its own path. Canon law which
survived the discarded authority of Rome acted as a brake,
and was used as a discipline even by reformers Co bring sta-
bility to the domestic relations of life. Others than the
king, however, found means of twisting the law to their
desire. When the Marquis of Northampton put aside his
first wife to marry Elizabeth Cobham and haid been sum-
moned in consequence before Somerset's Council, he ol>-
tained the support of Hooper who advocated equal liberty
of divorce in case of adultery. This was contrary to the
same Canon law which had at one time been ready to toler-
lyGOOglC
2SO TUDOR IDEALS
ate two wives for Henry VIII but refused to recognize di-
vorce. After Somerset's fall, Northampton found means
to legalize his second marriage by act of Parliament.
In an age of transition, where the individual is powerful
enough, he is able to do as he likes. Not so when a con-
servative reaction has again created conditions of stability.
Lord Mountjoy, the greatest soldier of Elizabeth's reign,
could live in open sin with Lady Rich — the Penelope of
Sidney's love. A special precedence could be created for
her at Court where such intimacy was accepted. But their
marriage after divorce scandalized a society accustomed
to accept whatever was beneath the surface, but unwilling
to see the Canon law openly violated.
Married life, as in our day, allowed for all extremes.
Florizel falls in love with Perdita. Lord Rich gives his
wife every license, so long as her brother Essex is power-
ful, but divorces her after his execution. More and Bacon
uphold high standards of fidelity. TTie question of love
in and out of wedlock carries one into a realm where ex-
perience is doubtful. Courtly life centred around gallan-
try. Love was the goal of earthly attainment; deeds of
valour were mainly to win such love and the lover had
to consecrate his life to his lady. The medieval ideal sur-
vived long after a different spirit had penetrated, for
it is difficult to conceive of a court where such ideas were
of less practical importance. The hardheadedness of the
Tudors found relaxation in playing with fancies v^hose
worth they would have been the last to exaggerate.
It is unnecessary to wait for the Restoration to dis-
cover modern ideas of the sex no longer raised to the pin-
nacle imposed by earlier convention. Lyly expressed the
prevalent court feeling. His goal is not one of passion but
of money and position, the desire for which is unabashed.
The conventions of chivalry are frankly abandoned for
a pleasant banter, and a learned preciosity, fitting in with
fashionable cultivated tendencies.
At the court of Elizabeth, morals were neither so good
lyGOOgIC
THE FAMILY 251
nor so bad as at times represented. Lord Southampton
might pursue an intrigue with Miss Vernon, but so soon
as her condition rendered it necessary, he married her in
spite of the risk. A Manningham might comment on the
Earl of Sussex keeping his mistress openly as "a practise
to bring the nobility into contempt and beggary." So-
cial conditions were then approximating a more mod-
ern phase.
Below the court circle it is difficult to generalize. In
spite of Puritan attacks there was great improvement in
the personal conduct of the clergy, although an arch-
bishop paid blackmail on one famous occasion.'* Puri-
tanism was already asserting its cleansing force.
lyGOOgIC
lyGOOgIC
PART IV
THE ENRICHMENT OF LIFE
lyGOOgIC
lyGOOgIC
I. THE MODERN SPIRIT
With the Renaissance, man appears as a self-conscious
being, open to impression, less hardened by convention,
more concerned with this life and less by the next than
during the Middle Ages. A new intellectual curiosity left
him no longer afraid of ideas.
Modern man was born in England in the Sixteenth Cen-
tury. In Scotland where many still lived a medieval life,
James Buchanan, the humanist, could write self-con-
sciously that he was born "neither in a climate, country
nor age that was learned." In England, however, medieval
and modern types of men intermingled and blended with
the modern in increasing frequency. Yet how hard it is to
lay down any real cleavage of type between the two, can be
judged from Thomas More's example. He was modern
in the best sense, by his respect for human life, his im-
mense sympathy for the oppressed, and his small rever-
ence for the mighty. Classical secular morality made
him accept suicide for those afflicted by incurable disease.'
But More wore the hair shirt next to his skin, and ruth-
lessly persecuted heresy. The contradiction of the age
offers no more striking example.
Self-consciousness is the mental watershed which sepa-
rates the Renaissance from the Middle Ages. As soon as
men reasoned about their age and contrasted it with me-
dieval rudeness they had reached the threshold of modem
times. A new introspection had been learned. Sidney
writes to Languet: " In your letters I fancy I see a picture
of the age in which we live; an age that resembles a bow
too long bent, it must be unstrung or it will break."*
Languet who had taught Sidney his humanity was modem,
when he wrote an apology for Pibrac who, in order to
lyGOOgIC
3S6 TUDOR IDEALS
save his life, had been forced to publish a defence of the
Massacre of St. Bartholomew which he detested.
"I am accustomed to judge of men otherwise than most
persons do; unless they are utterly depraved, I cull out
their good qualities if they have any; and if through error
or weakness they fail in any point, I put it out of sight as
far as I can."'
The gigantic transformations of the Sixteenth Century,
the clash between opposing forces, and the confusion be-
tween spiritual and political interests presented a specta-
cle of chaos to those tQ.who tried to reason. Even to-day,
with the perspective of centuries behind us and the com-
Earative indifference caused by our remoteness, we can
ardly explain the age, save in the light of our sympathies
or prejudices. How much more difficult was the task of
whoever breathed its air or felt stirred by its living
emotions.
Men realized that the epoch was quite unlike any other.
Geoffrey Fenton alludes to his time as "seasons so perilous
and conspiring, " * and Pietro Ubaldini, dedicating his "Il-
lustrious Women " to Queen Elizabeth, calls the age " this
our unhappy century." Yet a contemporary of Shakes-
peare and Spenser could write — "We have fallen into the
barren age of the world . . . there is general sterility."'
The tendency of thinkers in any period of sudden change
is to express regret for a real or mythical past. Only after
another generation is born, do men begin to preach the
merits of the new. Gabriel Harvey who has passed most
unjustly into history as a pedant, takes up the defence of
his time in a letter to Spenser:
" You suppose the first age was the Golden Age. It is
nothing so. Bodin defendeth the gold age to flourish now
and our first great-grandfathers to have rubbed through
in the iron and brazen age at the banning, when all
things were rude and imperfect in comparison of the ex-
quisite finesse and delicacy that we are grown into at
these days. "
lyGOOgIC
THE MODERN SPIRIT 257
Harvey saw a new spirit sweeping over the land.
"England never had more honourable minds, more ad-
venturous hearts, more valorous heads or more excellent
wits than of late." Let men read of Humphrey Gil-
bert and Drake, of Frobisher and Raleigh, to feel pride
in their countrymen's achievements in action and letters.^
Samuel Daniel also condemned the "idle affectation of
antiquity" and disparaged the achievements of the hu-
manists, declaring himself "jealous of our fame and repu-
tation." Like any modern evolutionist, he wrote "This
is but a character of that perpetual revolution which we
see to be in all things that never remain the same and we
must herein be content to submit ourselves to the law of
time which in few years will make all that for which we
now contend nothing."*
Bacon, most modern of all, without prejudice or sym-
pathy weighed the current of every force, condemning
alike the undue reverence for antiquity and the undue de-
sire for novelty. He found the appropriate motto of the
age in Charles the Fifth's device of Plus Ultra, "there is
more beyond."
Sensitiveness to impression, daring thought which led
fo action and action which led to thought, were the
signs of the new spirit. The pleasures of cultivated in-
tercourse were being discovered. Literature as the mark
of human consciousness was expressing thoi^hts hitherto
unknown.
A new consciousness, in part popular, was arising out
of letters; a Scottish courtier like David Lyndsay declared
that he wrote in the vulgar tongue as his rhymes were in-
tended for "colliers, carters, and cooks,"' Gawain Doug-
las translated Virgil in order that it might be read by the
masses. Anovel literary pride was spreading fostered by
consciousness of achievement. Puttenham went about
searching for the pure wells of English and discovering
them in the shires far from scholars' affectations of the
Universities, or the ports where strangers haunt." Wil-
lyGOOglC
258 TUDOR IDEALS
Ham Webbe after praising Chaucer remarked, in 1586,
that until twenty years before, no work of importance had
been written in the English tongue." Spenser told his
countrymen that no nation in the world exceeded them in
knowledge and humanity.
Intellectual curiosity spread from the ancient world's
revelation to search into every aspect of life. The de-
scnptive narratives which had satisfied medieval interest
were succeeded by histories written in a critical spirit.
The spirit of the Renaissance meant the awakening
self-consciousness in man. The senses of distance and of
difference, applied to the criticism of life, were henceforth
to become intellectual processes instead of rough general-
ities as had been true during the Middle Ages. The feel-
ing of the age came from realizing the distance traversed
by man and measuring the methods by which this had
been effected. Petrarch's "opening the libraries which till
then were shut up, and beating away the dust and filth
from the good books of ancient authors,"** is a not inac-
curate, Sixteenth Century explanation of the connexion
between the new life and classical times. The reflective
mind harked back to antiquity because only there could
it find the satisfactions of its desire for reason, order and
clarity. In this sense the history of Renaissance scholar-
ship is of far greater importance than that of learning at
any other time, because it had to do with the criticism
of man by himself and of his evolution toward the modem
world.
lyGOOgIC
II. THE IDEA OF FAME
England which accepted the Ideas of Renaissance more
placidly than Italy gave less thought to the pursuit of
fame. The excessive wish for glory and craving for immor-
tality, made no real appeal to the English nature though
it cannot be overlooked in any study of the age's ideals.
Even a poetaster like Skelton had the audacity to write
sixteen hundred lines in self-praise where he calls on all
the famous poets of antiquity to do him honour.'
The wish for immortality formed part of the baggage
of a classical education. Erasmus could write of himself,
that he would live forever read by all the world, and
Gawain Douglas ending his translation of the jEneid para-
phrased Horace
"The bener part of me shall be upheld
Above the stars perpetually to ring." '
Such talk had been heard before from Italian human-
ists who travelled over Europe professing the ability to
confer immortality,^ although Thomas More put into
the mouth of Pico della Mirandola, that often fame hurt
men while they lived and did them no benefit after death.
The expression of the wish for glory was more frequently
to be found in letters than in the conscious shaping of life.
Henry VIII's early desire for renown proved to be a
transient phase in his nature, though certain satisfac-
tions given to his vanity were later served up by Sir Je-
rome Bowes, the British Ambassador to Muscovy, when
he impressed Ivan the Terrible with the greatness of
Queen Elizabeth by relating that her father had kept an
Emperor in his pay.*
None of Henry VIII's children mounting the throne
lyGOOgIC
a6o TUDOR IDEALS
felt any overwhelming ambition. Contemporaries a]l^;e
that among the reasons which dissuaded Elizabeth from
matrimony, was the fear lest it detract from her personal
glory. Far more likely it was her personal authority that
she felt would then be in danger. The dread of infamy
with posterity certainly did not deter her from the execu-
tion of Mary Stuart. """ '■ "^ '**'^- '"" t"*"-
The pursuit of fame hardJy formed a goal by itself, but
was regarded as a desire common to all men. Its stimulus
was enhanced by classical ideas, a wider public, and the
vast new opportunities favoured by an age of individual
effort. Men felt that their achievements would be known.
Horizons opened by the Renaissance offered fame as a
reward to those who dared. Tamburlaine, the robber
chief, aspires to win glory —
" because being yet obscure.
The nations of the earth admire me not," '
Richard Grenville dying after his memorable tight declared
that his soul would leave behind an everlasting fame.
The poet Barnfield could write the well-known epitaph
of Hawkins
" The waters were his binding sheet
The sea was made his tomb.
Yet for his fame the ocean was
Not sufficient room."
Freebooter though he was, Drake deliberately sought
fame. His ship was preserved as a national monument.
Some even thought that he ordered the execution of
Doughty because he saw in the latter "an emulator of
his glory."*
The wish for celebrity then led men Coward danger,
Languet wrote to Sidney imploring him not to allow an
excessive desire for fame to cause him to incur undue risk.'
Hero worship made it unseemly for anyone of quality
long after his death to appear at court in gaudy apparel.
lyGOOgIC
THE IDEA OF FAME 261
Spenser could say that " life is not lost for which is bought
endless renown that more than death is to be sought."
With more generosity than critical sense he assigned
immortality freely to many of his contemporaries who
with little baggage claimed entrance to Olympus.
The Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey depends, as is
known, on a fortunate accident. That in the Sixteenth
Century, this could be seized upon and that the pens which
wrote the mournful elegies on Spenser's death were after-
ward thrown into his tomb, shows a consciousness of poetic
dignity and fame peculiarly appropriate for one who like
Spenser found compensation for earthly misery in post-
humous glory.
Such desire stimulated many a writer. Bacon could
aptly say that the monuments of the mind were more
lasting than those of power and recalled the verses of
Homer continuing unchanged for twenty-five hundred
years without the loss of a syllable, during which time
cities and temples had decayed and perished. He himself
advocated the building of enduring monuments. Already
a century earlier in Italy the statues of the great Con-
dottieri and the Malatesta Temple at Rimini, showed the
desire to consecrate fame by the graven image. Save for
the tomb, there was no corresponding wish for similar
monuments in England till Bacon in his " New Atlantis "
suggested a gallery to contain the statues of all great
discoverers.
Bacon repeats elsewhere Ariosto's fine image, how at
the end of the thread of every man's life was suspended a
medal with his name. Time waited with shears and when
the thread was cut, caught the medal and carried it to
the river of Lethe. Above its banks flew many birds who
would fish up the medals and carry these in their beaks for
a little while, and then let them fall into the river. Yet
there were a few swans who if they found a name would
carry it to a temple where it remained forever conse-
crated.
lyGOOgIC
III. DEATH
Spiritually, at least, life in medieval times was re-
garded as a preparation for death. The imagination had
then been most impressed by the mutability of all that
is human. A gloomy view was taken of the physical
horror of death, for the spirit of the Middle Ages was more
external than is commonly realized, and even its mys-
ticism rested largely on a physical basis. Death was the
great leveller.
"Death acclaim how all things must die
Pope, Emperor, King, Baron and Knight." *
With the Sixteenth Century, ancient philosophy came
to bear on the problems of life and stoicism with a few
elect could help to get the better of physical apprehen-
sion. Thomas More, ardent Christian though he was,
displayed a spirit worthy of a hero of Plutarch, in his
famous answer to the Duke of Norfolk who was ut^ng
him in order to save his head, to yield to the king. "Tnen
in good faith the difference between your grace and me
is but this, that I shall die to-day and you to-morrow."'
Toward the end of the century, Humphrey Gilbert in
his memorial to the queen, showed the influence of antiq-
uity when he wrote — "He is not worthy to live at all
that for fear or danger of death shunneth his country's ser-
vice and his own honour, seeing that death is inevitable
and the fame of virtue immortal."
Classical influence brought about a difl^erent attitude
from the medieval toward death. It was no longer re-
garded as an isolated physical fact but was considered
in its relation to life itself, and as an alternative to moral
circumstances. Marlowe says —
lyGOOgIC
DEATH 263
"Weep not for Mortimer
That scorns the world and as a traveller
Goes to discover countries yet unknown."
(Edw. IIiV,VI,63,jy.)
The finer minds of the Renaissance felt something of
the spirit of ancient philosophy and a supposed agnos-
tic like Raleigh could write on the eve of his own execu-
tion:
"Of death and judgment, heaven and hell
Who oft doth think must needs die well."
The justification of suicide was of purely pagan lineage,
yet Spenser's Red Cross Knight arriving at the Cave of
Despair almost succumbed to this temptation.* Bacon,
as Is well known, advocated euthanasia and r^arded it
as the physician's duty to soften the agony of death.
Was it training or pride, which then made men and
women mount the scaffold with lofty courage. It could
not always have been the wish for admiration, such as
Malcolm felt for Cawdor's conduct. There was a fatalism
in the spirit of the time, and a moral preparation for death
which came from the continuous neighbourhood of danger.
Nothing could surpass the high courage of Anne Boleyn
at the moment of execution.* Protesting her innocence
she felt no regret at death, perhaps because the charge
for which she suffered was the only one of which she was
completely guiltless. Katherine Howard died with no
less resolution.* Others, like Lady Jane Grey, approached
the scaffold with the courage born of youth. The ex-
hortation she wrote at the end of her New Testament, the
night before her execution, lives as a memorial of one
of the noblest of women." So Mary Stuart entered the
execution chamber with the same majesty and grace as
in a ball room.^ Essex's courage tn his trial and at his
execution was immensely admired. "His chief care was
to leave a good opinion in the people's minds now at
parting." *
lyGOOgIC
264 TUDOR IDEALS
In his ' ' Commonwealth of England" Sir Thomas Smith
had remarked that it was in the nature of Englishmen to
neglect death, and praised the resolution of malefactors
on their way to execution. There was pride in not
wishing to show fear before the unavoidable. Babing-
ton's apparent unconcern in watching the disembowe-
ling of his accomplice Ballard, although himself about
to suffer the same horrible death, was set down to such
pride." Yet the fear of death was more common than
might be supposed, and Latimer speaks of it as worse than
death itself.'" Vast contrasts were to be noted and per-
haps the only real distinction between then and now was
the complete indifference with which the death of others
was regarded.
Edward VI records the fact, as simply as he does cold-
bloodedly, that his uncle " the Duke of Somerset had his
head cutoff on Tower Hill on the 22nd of January 1 551-1
between eight and nine o'clock in the morning."" Not
a gleam of pity or regret went out to one who had been
his ablest and most devoted adviser.
If death failed to affect its witnesses, it was often other-
wise with those who were to suffer. Sir Thomas Wyatt
the Younger begged pitifully for his life after his unsuc-
cessful rebellion. The Duke of Northumberland recant-
ing his protestantism entreated even for the life of a d<^.
Not all could face death with resolution. Essex's fellow
prisoner, Lord Southampton, imploring the queen's mercy,
gave the impression of seeming "too loth to die." tJke
Claudio in " Measure for Measure " there were those who
in time of death to save themselves were ready to stoop
to any degree of abjection.
No generalization about the Renaissance attitude to-
ward life or death would hold true. All it is possible to
say, is that the purely Christian attitude of death inherited
from the Middle Ages, had been succeeded by one in-
. fluenced from classical sources, and in its wide diver^ty
approaching the modern point of view.
t: Go Ogle
IV. THE FEELING FOR NATURE
A BRIEF note on the feeling for nature is in place. The
emotional response to the inner sentiment of an age is
usually too delicate to create a more permanent mould.
Before the Renaissance spiritual life remained little devel-
oped outside the walls of religion. Even the comprehen-
sion of nature which usually marks a craving for the inner
life is absent before comparatively modem times. In the
Fifteenth Century an English traveller could cross the
St. Gothard blindfold not to see the dangers of the road.
With the Renaissance b^an a kind of intermediate
stage toward the understan^ng of nature. Lear, wan-
dering in the storm, is impressed by something deeps*
than the inclemency of the elements. Roger Ascham
has described, in the spirit of Gilbert White, a winter ride
near Cambridge,* over fields covered with crusted snow
on which the sunshine played. Most of our knowledge of
nature springs from the poets, and it is necess^y in their
case to divorce convention from real feeling. The appeal
made by nature to poetry in the Sixteenth Century did
not differ very considerably from that of previous ages.
Skelton could catalogue wild fowl and song birds with no
small learning yet find litde real pleasure in thdr song.
Gawain Douglas showed keen ob^rvation of externals
and delighted in nature as it appealed to the medieval
mind, in such representations of sowers and harvesters
as may still be admired in the Breviary of the Duke de
Berri. He remained unable to identify himsdf with the
elements, like Shelley, nor draw mora] lessons from nature,
like Wordsworth.
The love of nature on the part of the eaily English
poets was mainly one of description of birds and flowers
rather than of its wider aspects. Wyatt, it is true.
lyGOOgIC
266 TUDOR IDEALS
mentions the Alps with modern feeling, while Surrey's
descriptions of Windsor Forest contain glimpses of a new
vision. But most references are mere catalogues of pleas-
ing natural objects arranged in poetical fancies without
attempt to penetrate further. The effect of such allu-
sions m many poets of the age is pretty, but rarely more
subtle and always lacking in grandeur. English pasto-
ralism, healthy and fresh and taking real pleasure in
wood-life and the "forest green," did not get beyond the
convention of certain stock subjects. Even Shakespeare
usually sees nature in this light though his genius becomes
modern in the oft quoted lines.
"And thfs one life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks
Semions in stones and good in everything."
He described the sufferings of the hunted deer in "As You
Like It," and of the hare in "Venus and Adonis" with
more than rhetorical sympathy for the beast. The human
appeal of the Renaissance had awakened hitherto unknown
feelings toward dumb beasts. Thomas More made his
Utopians relegate hunting to the butchers, regarding it
as the most abject part of slaughter.* Such ideas long
dormant through the century were afterward taken up
under another form. Whatever faults may be charged
to Puritanism, it stood against cruelty shown animals and
attacked bearbaiting in the name of religion on the
ground that no creature is to be abused as all are made
by God.*
lyGOOgIC
V. THE PLEASURE OF THE COUNTRY
The pleasure of the garden was introduced on a lar^
scale in the Sixteenth Century. Italian influence showed
itself in the English gardens of the period at Hampton
Court and at Nonesuch, with its columns and pyramids of
marble and spouting fountains. Lord Burldgh's gardens
at Theobald with their labyrinths and elaborate water
arrangements and their busts of Roman Emperors be-
came show places.' For the first time new conditions
of security and the growth of wealth allowed of a vast
increase of stately houses, gardens, pools and parks, till
nature dressed to the eye formed part of a suitable en-
vironment to the residences of the great. The garden, no
longer merely for the herbalist, became the province of
architects, engineers and sculptors. The taste for garden-
ing in England was, however, more finicky than in Italy,
The wildness of the Italian distant perspective formed no
part of the more domesticated English horizon.
Enjoyment of the country springs from one of the deep-
est instincts in man, but its expression has always varied
in accordance with the prevailing conditions of security, of
possession, and even of comfort. During the Middle Ages,
the feudal structure resting on a basis of land tenure, caused
a very practical feeling toward the land and contributed
to restrict its appreciation to perceptions of dctwl, or else
to vague and indefinite professions of pleasure. In the
Tudor period, however, a double phenomenon took place,
which in no way connected in origin or cause made for the
same result. The awakened consciousness of man with
the sense of growth in his own development, brought about
a keener sense of nature than less articulate and ruder ages
had possessed. There is no need to look for this only in
the expressions of poets. The general conditions of life
»67
lyGOOgIC
268 TUDOR IDEALS
existed for the first time in England which permitted the
broad diiTusion of this taste.
The Tudor centralization of power carried with it an
altered perspective toward the land. Instead of regard-
ing it as the unit of national life by its associations and
traditions, for the first time since antiquity, it became, so
to speak, desocialized and for one brief period, at least, its
possession implied no further obligation. The economic
consequences of this change with its reactions in agricul-
tural disturbances, and its visible result in deerparks and
enclosures, have often been commented on, but less at-
tention has been paid to the evolution this movement
betokened, in regarding nature as a field for pleasurable
enjoyment. Coarse-grained lawyers enriched with monk-
ish spoils and merchants fresh from the city acquired this
feeling. They could indulge in the pleasure of the country
and feel a certain survival of consideration^ which handed
down from former ages was readily transferred to the
holder of landed property irrespective of his origin.
The English structure of Hfe has always been more ru-
ral than urban. So little was a residence in London to
the taste of country gentlemen, that it had been found
necessary to enact a statute forbidding these to absent
themselves from Parliament. A writer who had lived long
abroad with his mind fixed on the palaces which adorn
even the smallest Italian town, suggested that the gentry
should be induced to build houses in the city. Continual
residence in the country "is a great rudeness and a bar-
barous custom."'
The lack of important industry until a comparatively
late period, left city life in England of less importance
than in Italy or in the Low Countries. The fact that the
British social fabric was already firmly established long
before the nation became industrialized, allowed the
countryside, so to speak, to steal a march on the city and
has been among the causes which until recent times made
for the sacrificed existence of the latter in much that con-
lyGOOglC
THE PLEASURE OF THE COUNTRY 269
cerns the more durable pleasures of life. Property engen-
ders roots and roots engender respect. Position was at-
tained through the country and rarely through the town.
Even after the decay of feudalism, country life carried
with it a prestige derived from older associations. Hos-
pitality was generously extended. The chivalrous tra-
ditions inherited from feudal times survived after the
spirit of the castle had disappeared. Lord Shrewsbury,
in spite of the risk, received the disgraced Wolsey at Shef-
field Park on his last journey with the utmost courtesy.
English country life became established on its modem
basis during the Sixteenth Century. The novel condi-
tions of stability and order, the diffusion of luxury and
the rise of a new propertied class, were all circumstances
which made for its appreciation and which in turn were
to be productive of a domesticated idea of nature. An-
other cause contributing to this result was entirely intel-
lectual. The revival of classical antiquity and its lesson
both direct and indirect, through text, translation and con-
tinental influence, added to this feehng, and by an odd
paradox, dusty manuscripts helped to arouse the sense
of nature. Men loved the country more after they had
read Theocritus and Virgil, while so artificial a growth as
the pastoral comedy could by devious paths throw back
to nature.
The ideal of the Renaissance was that of action in the
service of the state. But those who most successfully
obeyed this call, felt the want of an alternative and
a refuge, if only for old age. Partly influenced by an-
cient philosophical Ideas, partly by inclinations fathered
by new conditions of life, the country could be regarded
as a normal residence for whoever was not actively em-
ployed. Men turned toward it naturally as a place of
abode where they could freely indulge their tastes. The
destruction of the feudal system made the country possi-
ble for a pleasurable life and opened it to all comers. An
ideal of life was then formed, which looked toward a
lyGOOgIC
TUDOR IDEALS
tranquil and cultivated existence in the independence of
a country home.
"This maketh me at home to hunt and hawk
And in foul weather at my book to sit," *
wrote Wyatt describing his pleasures far away from die
atmosphere of the court.
,,(SWF^It^-^
VI. THE DESIRE FOR BEAUTY
Italian art won an easy victory over a disintegrating
medievalism north of the Alps. The new standard of
taste which came out of the Italian Renaissance was every-
where blended differently and often the immediate in-
fluence was less important than where this came indirectly.
The gulf between Italy and England had been too wide
to be bridged over as easily as in France. Florentine mas-
ters at Fontainebleau could plant a tree able, at once,
to shoot out its own roots, but the Italian artists in Eng-
land left no direct influence behind them. The tombs by
Torrigiano at Westminster, show how heavy handed and
Gothic that sculptor became away from the sharp criti-
cism of his native soil. Want of appreciation offered slight
incentive to the foreign artist mainly concerned with his
material reward. The Tuscan craftsmen who worked at
Hampton Court were only an importation of little more
than fleeting importance. The first attempt to introduce
Italian art ended in virtual failure.'
Obscure Italians like the "Sergeant painter" Antonio
Toto remained in England,' but the real influence to which
native art responded passed through the Low Countries.
This may have been due to the fact that so many of the
early English painters like Streetes, were Dutch or Flem-
ings, but also because medieval realism in art which sur-
vived in England incompletely fused with the new spirit,
was nearer to the standard of the Netherlands.
Art was largely a craft and even Holbein's career had
begun by painting shopkeepers' signs. Its practical utility
came through portraiture, which satisfied the aesthetic de-
mands of the wealthy. The new self-consciousness con-
tributed to this result. Man for the first time cherished
a wish to preserve his likeness. When Sir Thomas Chal-
lyGOOglC
272 TUDOR IDEALS
oner translated the "Prize of Folly," his description of
its merits dwelt on the fact that the reader would herein
"see his own image more lively described than in any
painted table."
The desire for beauty was never so stirring a pasdon
in England as in Italy. It was all the more remarkable
for Henry VIII, almost without stimulus or atmosphere
about him save the wish to rival King Francis, to have
indulged his native taste to such advantage. In this he
showed himself to be a true prince of the Renaissance,
more Latin than English, who called on the arts to set
a richer framework for his majesty. Wolsey may have
initiated his sovereign toward such appreciation, for the
great Cardinal was full of the desire for magnificence,
and possessed a real love of beauty and a collector's taste
which made him purchase paintings in the Low Countries.
His fondness for tapestries was notorious. To reach his
audience chamber, wrote the Venetian Ambassador Gius-
tiniani, one had to traverse eight rooms all hung with
arras changed weekly.
Outside the court a survival of medieval luxury still
existed in England. There were many artistic treasures
left in the monasteries, and Skelton describes these hung
in tapestry representing
"Dame Diana naked
How lusty Venus quaked
And how Cupid shaked
His dart and bent his bow." '
A profusion of plate existed in the houses of merchants
and innkeepers, where it astonished foreign travellers un-
accustomed to such display. It was more prized, however,
for its intrinsic than for its artistic value. The medieval
traditions of craftsmanship in England had largely disap-
peared or degenerated. In a land still in many respects
crude, there was slight reason to expect any deep testhetJc
craving seeking sensuous expression. The attempts of
lyGOOgIC
THE DESIRE FOR BEAUTY 273
exalted patronage to introduce this artificially remained
stillborn. The builders' art alone survived as a practical
necessity, and the diffusion of riches discovered in archi-
tecture, as in portraiture, its first {esthetic satisfactions.
The feeling that external adornment marked a certain
station in life was increasing, and the diffusion of wealth
unconsciously did what the king's example could not.
The wish grew for luxurious comfort hitherto unknown.
Continental example reinforced this. Sir Thomas Elyot,
fresh from diplomatic missions abroad, urged men of
rank to hang their houses with tapestry and to possess
painted tables, images and engraved plate.* In Italy,
France and the Low Countries he had seen the arts en-
tering increasingly into cultivated life. Doubtless in-
fluenced by Castlglione's example he was the first in
England who sought to include art in a gentleman's
education and have painting and sculpture taught to
whoever showed inclination therefor.*
The arts in his ideal of education were regarded no
longer as crafts unworthy of a gentleman's attention but
as containing an inherent nobility. Far from degrading
whoever practiced them, Elyot recalled the fact that
Roman Emperors like Titus and Hadrian were artists.
The Sixteenth Century in England was too freshly out
of the Middle Ages not to have inherited many of its prej-
udices which the wave of the Renaissance had only parti-
ally submerged. Among these was the broad abyss which
separated artists from a gentleman's consideration. Long
medieval isolation had kept them on an inferior plane as
craftsmen. The Renaissance idea which brought out the
universal elements of life, lifted the arts out of what had
become a lowering of their general status.
. Such ideas were imperfectly accepted by many whose
vision remaining narrowed by the past refused to admit
the value of new elements. It was owing to this reaction
that the revelation of the Renaissance remained incom-
plete. It could never rid life of prejudice born in another
lyGOOgIC
274 TUDOR IDEALS
age. In a similar field, Puttenham blamed those gentlemen
poets to whom the publicity of print seemed a vulgari-
zation "as if it were a discredit for a gentleman to seem
learned and to show himself amorous of any good art."
Prejudices possess a tough life and after the real Renus-
sance was over, others expressed the conviction that paint-
ing could no longer be accounted "fit for a gentleman."'
Elyot's own portrait had been painted by Holbein,
but his understanding of art hardly went beyond an ad-
miration for ancient sculpture. The classical writers
awakened this interest from its literary side where it was
often confined to the repetition of stale anecdotes. Oddly
enough in one of the greatest ages of art, the only inter-
est taken by many was apparently restricted to hack-
neyed tales about Greek sculptors, Esthetic enjoyment
was still beyond the ken of even the most cultivated Eng-
lishmen whose feeling toward art was purely intellectual,
and derived from the accepted standards of a culture
which they freely recognized as superior to thdr own.
Wide interest was taken only in classical sculpture, es-
pecially by those who had been to Italy and felt the "ap-
preciation there evoked by the records of antiquity."'
Such passing references as may be found to the great Ital-
ians of that time, were generally due to a bland accept-
ance of the esteem in which they were held by their own
countrymen. Michelangelo's personal greatness was im-
pressed on every traveller, but the beauty of Italian art
remained foreign to the English temperament. One of the
few exceptions to this was Sir Thomas Wyatt whose de-
scription of a marble statue of David is, almost certainly,
a reminiscence of the one by Michelangelo, which he must
have seen when passing through Florence on his way to
Rome.
"David seemed in the place
A marble image of singular reverence
Carved in the rock with eyes and hand on high
Made as by craft to plain, to sob, to sigh." *
lyGOOgIC
THE DESIRE FOR BEAUTY 275
In his account of the massacre by the Spaniards at the
sack of Antwerp, George Gascoigne wrote that "a man
might behold as many shapes and forms of men's mo-
tion at time of death as even Michelangelo did portray
in his Tables of Doomsday."' Travellers like Fynes
Moryson praised the Sixtine Chapel and the skill of the
Italians in the arts.^" Their genius was still far removed
from normal English comprehension, and such lip worship
is less expressive of native opinion than of accepted com-
monplaces imbibed by traveland convention. When Shake-
speare described a marvellous statue by the painter Giulio
Romano," he was merely repeating the hackneyed opin-
ion which praised Italian art mdiscriminatcly without dis-
tinguishing painters from sculptors. The English mind
accepted without question this superiority, though attach-
ing slight importance to a side of life it could neither
grasp nor emulate. The aesthetic impulse expressed by the
graphic arts had hardly been awakened. Proof of this can
be seen in Richard Haydocke drawing a parallel between
English painters and Italian, and comparing Nicholas Bil-
liard to Raphael." Francis Meres, with the ignorance of
his insularism, compared John Bettes and Christopher
Switser to Pheidias and Praxiteles."
The English [esthetic sense, still too immature to appre-
ciate more than the direct presentation of realism, re-
mained unable to discriminate beyond. Idealism fired
its poets but left its painters cold and thdr conception
humble. Oddly enough, the most interesting fragment
of contemporary criticism of what art could mean, came
from a theologian and popular preacher. In his " Sermon
before the King," Latimer remarked that "Painters punt
death like a man without a skin and a body having noth-
ing but bones. And hell they paint it horrible flames of
burning fire; they bungle somewhat at it, they come
nothing near it. But this is no true painting; no painter
could paint hell unless he could paint the torment and con-
demnation both of body and soul. "" His idea is strangely
lyGOOgIC
276 TUDOR IDEALS
akin to the futurist wish to depict the inner state of the
mind.
The diffusion of wealth and culture gradually aroused
a taste for art. An enlightened patronage existed long
before native painters attained even mediocrity. Trav-
ellers from Italy and France brought back the collector's
taste. Nicholas Hovel, a dealer in paintings and antiques,
offered Lord Burghley for the queen, a collection wnich
had taken him twenty-five years to form and which in-
cluded the works of French, Italian and German paint-
ers." Interest in art was more widely diffused, though
not until the Stuarts did it become general among the
upper classes, when writers like Peacham " made ap-
peal to this new taste. Before him Richard Haydocke
spoke of this interest among the nobility and gentry "as
may appear by their galleries carefully furnished with the
excellent monuments of sundry famous ancient punters
both Italian and German." " And already he could la-
ment the neglect in which the descendants of collectors
had allowed their treasures to fall.
t: Go Ogle
VII. PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS IN LIFE
The surprising feature of Renaissance philosophy before
Bacon is its absence of originality. It aimed to be prac-
tical and concerned itself more with the conduct of life
than with abstract speculation. The philosopher was
said to be one who could realize "the life of men at all
times, in all places, in all passions and generally in all af-
fairs," The Renaissance conception of the meaning of
philosophy was that of moral conduct in action.
A wish for action more than for contemplation ran
through the age. This left its reflective sides without
much body and never quite able to shake off scholastic
origins, which even out of favour, kept their grip on
the mind. The only alternative for these lay in antiq-
uity. Philosophical speculation, such as it was, looked to
classical example to replace theology. When in " Measure
for Measure " the Duke disguised as a friar, reasons with
Claudio condemned to death, on the futiHty of life, his
argument is no longer religious but Stoic. How far this
represents Shakespeare's own views, is of slight impor-
tance before the fact that the thoughts of the age were
now based on a secular ideal which unconsciously traced
its intellectual pedigree to antiquity. Its full revelation
entered English life only when this became unnoticeable
by Its familiarity.
Philosophical reflections were derived mainly from the
direct inspiration of classical sources. The new belief
of the Renaissance was that of man in himself, and his
own unbounded capacity which he could extend through
knowledge. Christianity could be judiciously blended
with the higher paganism, and many a thinker of that
age, without difficulty reconciled Nazareth with Athens.
lyGOOgIC
278 TUDOR IDEALS
The exceptional favour then enjoyed by the Neo-Platon-
tsts was due to nothing else.
The birth of modern philosophy was no native growth
but a graft on a very ancient stock. Classical example
shaped the world of thought. To the extent it made men
imitative, it left philosophy fragmentary and partial, in-
stead of constructive. The new seeds had been scattered
far and wide, sown almost without plan or order and
another age had to come before these could ripen. The
Renaissance, in revolt against the rigid scholastic struc-
ture, collected its material haphazardly and uncritically
for the future to digest. It piled up its wealth without
fixing beforehand the avenues of access to its riches.
Something more was needed before these could be laid
out. A tradition had to be built before more delicate
perceptions could begin this task.
The consciousness of man expressed by means of direct
philosophical abstractions, represented a trend of thought
still alien to the English mind of the- Sixteenth Century.
The complete break with the Middle Ages had not yet
taken place. Under Henry VIII, hardly any traces can
be found of intellectual speculation. For one thing, man
was not sufficiently articulate to express his subtler
thoughts in terms of theory. Intellectual abstractions
went mainly into theology and partly into statecraft.
An early expression of philosophical ideas in England
is to be found in Spenser, who like Italian thinkers of
the early Renaissance, reconciled Christianity with Platon-
ism and found in celestial beauty a religious ideal. His
hymns were inspired by the study of Plato and the feeling
of divinity. Though there is nothing original in his ideas,
he phrased Platonism with the poet's art. All that is
good is beautiful and fair, and everything save the con-
templation of heavenly beauty is naught.
" All other sights but feigned shadows be."
It is a poor test for poetry to seek in it any deep philo-
lyGOOglC
PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS IN LIFE 279
sophical truth. Yet the ideas underlying " The Tempest "
offer a symbol of the Renaissance. Brute force becomes
subjected to the intellect. Life no longer as medieval
theolt^y had seen it, came to be regarded for the first time
as a stru^le whose justification was found in the victory of
mind over matter and in the enlarged horizon before man.
Even the achievements of navigators entered into the
realm of philosophy with the discovery of the Bermudas.
The philosophical ideas of a Frospero, or of a Hamlet,
express a far dreamier and less practical side of the Eliza-
bethan age than is commonly supposed to be its charac-
teristic. It is unfair to any time or nation, to restrict
its traits solely within certain accepted grooves and
exclude everything else as unrepresentative. Shake-
speare better than anyone, proves the absurdity of such
reasoning by showing how the wealth of an age springs
from diversity. To take any other view is wilfully to re-
strict one's vision. His own dream of the ideal state as set
forth in the "Tempest" is hardly original, except in the
sense that ideas acquire originality by differing from that
prototype. The communism of Gonzalo, like that of
More's Utopians, was mainly a vague aspirarion toward
justice with little belief in its pracrical reality.
In war-disturbed Ireland surrounded by rebels, a church-
man, a soldier, an apothecary, and some civil servants
could meet and discuss those questions which have con-
cerned philosophers in every age and talk of virtue,
honour and the soul as shaping the life of man.' Thdr
conversations form the subject of one of the earliest
philosophical books in English written by Spenser's friend
Lodovyck Bryskett, but which enjoyed slight p>opularity.
The tendency of the British mind was far more podtive
and practical than abstract. Its real greatness came out
in the scientific achievement of a Harvey, a Gilbert, and
a Napier.
Pure philosophy was, fordgn to the Brirish nature.
Intellectual speculation is more often the product of
lyGoogIc
28o TUDOR IDEALS
a nation in repose. A period of keen advancement, of '
buoyant spirits, and rapid change, is careless of values
whose approach lies through theory. Especially in Eng-
land the foundations of philosophical reasoning were sbll
non-existent except in an antiquated form. Works like
Du Vair's treatise on stoical philosophy were translated '
and several of Giordano Bruno's books were printed in
London. The dialogues he dedicated to Sidney, and his
mention of men like Fulke Greville and Sir Toby Matthew,
show the existence of a small circle interested in philo>
sophical speculation who lived outside academic portals.
Such appeal was made only to a select few.
The non-speculative mind of the Englishman was con-
tent to take his philosophy at second hand and especially
from Aristotle, whose "Ethics" were translated from the
Italian, and whose "Politics" from the French. There was
no attempt made to construct an original system. Even
thinkers like More were chiefly interested in social prob.
lems. Philosophy meant mainly disquisitions on specu-
lative topics in which Platonic ideas were usually intro-
duced.* Bryskett admitted this absence of sympathy and
contrasted the inferiority of England to Italy in this re-
spect.
The man of cultivation needed no philosophical sys-
tern to express his idea of conduct. The search for this
was nothing new for medieval contemplation also had
sought to find such a standard. The novelty of the Re-
naissance lay in secularizing this. Even Cardinal Allen's
Secretary, Ri^er Bayne, in his "Praise of Solitariness,"
the scene of which takes place in Venice, discusses the
eternal question of the merits of the active and the con-
templarive life, and which the wise man should seek, the
answer being that he should know how to apply himself to
both. When duty summoned he must be ready to leave
solitude to sacrifice his life for his country. Others like Sir
Richard Barckley and Sir William Cornwallis revived the
same timeworn themes. Philosophical speculation hardly
t: Go Ogle
PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS IN LIFE 281
went beyond this. It was left for a Pole, Grlmaldus Gos-
licius, whose work was translated into English, best to
express this ideal. Affirming that the three kinds of lives
were of action, contemplation and pleasure, he added:
"Whoso therefore desireth to live virtuously and happily
must participate both of the civil and philosophical lives
which are action and contemplation."
Poets sung the contemplative ideal. The instabihty
of mortal things had always been a favourite subject
for medieval expression. The charm of the placid, found
itself praised in an age of action. Sir Edward Dyer's
self-complacent lines "My mind to me a kingdom is"
breathes the Horatian spirit in its goal of repose.
A point of view which was later to evolve the practical
basis for an intellectual foundation of life, was then in the
moulding. The new conception of modernity was already
shaping men's thoughts. Gabriel Harvey with nothing
of the pedant, could write to Spenser that the most im-
portant thing in life was to live, and the ideal of a con-
templative existence which regarded as unlawful all
bodily and sensual pleasures was a stale and bookish
opinion.
The basis of future philosophical speculation was being
laid by science. The intellectual curiosity of the Re-
naissance branched out toward an interest in natural his-
tory far beyond that of the medieval bestiary. Hakluyt
who had frequent occasion to mention strange plants and
animals alludes to the collections of natural history
formed with great effort by his friends Richard Garthe
and William Cope.* Medicine too profited by this new
interest. Where David Lyndsay could make the king's
physician and surgeon appear ridiculous by causing them
to joust by royal command, the ignorance of the medical
profession for the first time impressed men as a serious
deficiency. Stubbes demanded that all doctors be grad-
uates of Universities and well paid by the State to attend
the poor, in order to remedy the gross scandal which
lyGOOgIC
282 TUDOR IDEALS
allowed any ignorant person to assume the title and habit
of a physician.* A new devotion made Thomas Lodge,
doctor as well as poet, with a fine sense of professional
duty which then was rare, remain at his post to attend
the poor during the plague in London.
First in England, Bacon realized the possibilities of
science. Aloof and isolated In his Ideas with not even the
knowledge of his countrymen's scientific discoveries, he
was the true child of the Renaissance even to the circum-
stances of his death brought on by a chill caught in obser-
ving the effect of snow in preserving the body of a hen.
Without prejudice or reverence he demolished the be-
lief in the irrational. His creed was the sovereignty of
man through science built on experience. "Printing" a
gross achievement, artillery and the needle. What a
change have these three words made in the world. Yet
they had been stumbled on by chance. In knowledge, he
wrote, lay the future ot mankind "wherein many things
are reserved which kings with their treasure cannot buy
nor with their force command." The wish contained in
the "New Adantis" for centralized bureaus to collect
and record scientific data and undertake experiments,
foreshadows the ideas of our own age.
Bacon in the same sense as Shakespeare ceases to be
typical. It is the penalty of genius that it stands alone
and its height measures its isolation. Those less scien-
tific offer safer tests — Spenser, for Instance, who is never
thought of as a man of science, was modern in his anthro-
pological speculations. After dismissing the Irish clum
to Spanish descent, which he regards as emanating from
vanity owing to the presdge of Spain, he says in words
which could be written to day:
"There is no nation now in Christendom nor much fur-
ther, but is mingled and compounded with others." This
he regards as providential as it makes all people united by
blood.^ Though he wanders into fantasy when trying to
fasten a Scythian origin on the Irish his method of rea-
t: Go Ogle
PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS IN LIFE 283
soning is one of the first evidences of a study of primitive
culture.'
Alongside of a new scientific interest one stands con-
fronted by the tragic effects of ignorance exercising a more
powerful sway than before. Superstition can never Be
segregated within an age of ignorance. All too easily the
contrary may be proved and examples culled from every
direction and time. Yet in any larger oudook where val-
ues are expanded and exceptions disr^arded, the effects
of superstition tend to fall back into dark periods. Among
the triumphs of the Renaissance was that of having shat-
tered many of the most glaring abuses which attached
themselves to the veneration of images and shrines.
Because of political purposes the grossest medieval su-
perstitions which clung to the wonder-working powers
of relics were attacked and largely destroyed. But the
spirit of superstition was not so easily shaken. Wolsey
firmly believed in omens and interpreted inugnificant
acts in their light.* The Nun of Kent, Elizabeth Barton,
was believed by him as by Warham and More, to have
been divinely inspired when from her cell at Cantu'bury
she gave heavenly orders to the Pope himsdf. Super-
stition became dangerous in its polirical reactions and
the Nun's prophecies were made use of by those who op-
Eosed the king's divorce. Belief in the supernatural can
ardly be isolated from other factors, and much that is
otherwise unexplicable in the past, comes from the recol-
lection of immediate interest being effaced, leaving only
the grosser elements to wonder at. After all allowances
have been made, there sdll remained a vast amount of
credulity."
Reformers who were ready to attack wonder-woriung
relics were themselves quite as prone to beliere in witch-
craft. The persecution of the unfortunates accused of
sorcery tells a tragic story. The belief was found al-
most everywhere. John Penry speaks of the "swanns
of soothsayers and enchanters" in Wales who professed
lyGOOgIC
284 TUDOR IDEALS
to walk at night with the fairies." The English soldiers
were convinced that the Irish were possessed of the power
of witchcraft "and this belief doth much daunt our sol-
diers when they come to deal with the Irishry." When
King James himself was a believer in witches and boasted
that the devil saw in him his greatest enemy, it is not sur-
prising that the masses should have been superstitious.
Other forms less tragic in result could be seen in the
numerous broadsides relating to monstrous children bom
which were invariably regarded in the light of warnings
to England.
In Italy a Leonardo da Vinci showed his contempt for
alchemists and necromancers. But no such thing as uni-
formity of opinion can be found unless it is that the ma-
jority remained credulous. The existence of superstition
was only one of those irrational elements which serve as
correctives to more buoyant hopes in the wish to reform
humanity.
The tragic effects due to the belief in sorcery were, oddly
enough, coincident with the Renaissance but reached a
terrible climax in the Seventeenth Century. The worst
excesses against witches were committed during the Com-
monwealth, as the result of Puritanical teaching in caus-
ing men everywhere to see Satanic influence. Yet the
feeling of rationalism existed as well. Ranald Scott
published in 1584, his remarkable "Discovery of Witch-
craft," where he exposed the gross fallacy of the super-
stition. Shakespeare, with probable personal indifference,
makes Lafeu say in " Alls Well that Ends Well; "
"We have our philosophical persons to make modem
and familiar things supernatural and causeless." (II, III,
i-j.)
The awakened consciousness of man and the new op-
portunities for diffusion, caused even the worst superstition
to obtain an influence which could hardly have been ex-
pressed in a grosser age. The half enlightenment which
was widespread proved prejudicial to the growth of the
lyGOOgIC
PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS IN LIFE jSj
real spirit of the Renaissance. A nation's life is too varied
to be centred within any exclusive direction. The awak-
ening stimulated the growing consciousness of man to-
ward prejudice quite as much as toward enlightenment.
The wide prevalence of superstition and its terrible eflFects
in the burning of witches, were the results of popular pres-
sure and not of official direction. It needed the incre-
dulity of the Restoration to shatter a belief which rested
on such broad foundation.
lyGOOgIC
VIII. ENGLAND AND THE SEA
The accident of Columbus's discovery no more detracts
from its greatness than does the fact that it was less the
Genoese sailor-adventurer who discovered the New World
than his era. Certainty the same discovery made even a
century earlier, would have hardly precipitated the re-
sult as was proved by the Northmen. It required an age
full of life and of bursting energy like the Renaissance to
realize the vast importance of the adventure. In this
sense, the discovery of the New World is as much a tri-
umph of the Renaissance as is the discovery of Antiquity.
The scholar in his study and the mariner on his deck were
working toward a common goal, and both were pushing
back the bounds which so long had hemmed in man-
kind. For the first time since the decay of Rome, action
and thought were united to bring about one vast result.
Oddly enough, England lagged behind in this pursuit.
By a curious circumstance, her backwardness with respect
to the other countries of western Europe was nownerc
more evident than in allowing these to cull the first fruits
of their enterprise. So late as 1 502, Henry VII could write
to the Pope that English mariners were unaccustomed to
sail beyond Pisa.' So late as 1529, David Lyndsay, one
of the most cultivated men of his day, could write —
"The earth tripartite was in three;
In Africa, Europe and Asie." '
A voyage undertaken by Captain Bodenham to Chios in
1551, seemed of sufficient importance to warrant being
included in Hakluyt's chronicle. The first English essays
in navigation were strangely timid. Later de la Popeliniere
expressed surprise that the English in spite of their love
lyGOOgIC
ENGLAND AND THE SEA 287
of enterprise and their valour, should have failed to make
themselves felt in an element which ought to be more
natural to them than to other nations.'
Historians are prone to seek ancient pedigrees for
newer births, in order to elevate these into primitive
national traits. English history has favoured the belief
that love of the sea has always been a deep-rooted in-
stinct in the British race. The slightest familiarity with
life in the Sixteenth Century convinces one that until the
end of Elizabeth's reign Elnglish backwardness lagged
behind every other country in western Europe, and was
so great as to astonish foreign observers.
Maritime enterprise could only develop when asMSted
by centralized resources such as the feudal structure of
society never possessed. Hence the reason why the period
of discovery in navigation coincided with the Renaissance,
was not merely fortuitous, but rather the corollary of poli-
tical evolution. Ideas bom in Italy came to harvest in
lands with better organized national resources. This,
in turn, only became posfflble after such countries had
achieved their national unity. Until this was accom-
plished in Spain, France and England, it had been hope-
less to expect states to divert their energy from more
urgent needs toward distant and precarious enterprises.
A coincidence of causes then shaped the conditions of
discovery which allowed a Columbus, a Verazzano and a
Cabot, to find their opportunity in lands other than their
own,
England was the last country to recdve this impulse,
which came as a novelty from abroad almost at the same
time as the new learning, and as its complement in action.
While circumstance, interest and ambition, later devel-
oped aptitude for the sea among Englishmen, till with
rapid forgetfulness of its true origin, they came to regard
it as an inherited national trait, the first lesson came from
Italy, the first example from Spain, and the first venture
began with the consolidation of the Tudor state.
lyGOOgIC
288 TUDOR IDEALS
Except for a few Bristol merchants with eyes fixed on
the hope of gain, the crown was the only element in the
nation with its survey beyond the seas discerning with
wider vision the novel elements entering into the Ufe of the
age. The service it rendered in providing a threshold for
new ideas in national life, cannot be overestimated. At
a time of disentegration of old forces and swift evolution
of new ones, the crown by its openness to other influences
and its freedom from insular prejudices, civilized England
at the same time as it saved it from the barbarism of a
long period of anarchy.
Henry VII, with his keen eye to the future, had fore-
seen the possibilities of discovery and in spite of his prover-
bial avarice proved almost generous in donations to ex-
plorers. A contemporary Venetian was even amused by
the honours paid John Cabot who dressed in silks, was de-
scribed as enlisting as many English as he liked, with Ital-
ian rogues besides. Yet this honour was richly deserved,
for long afterward the mariners of Elizabeth traced to him
the pedigree of their sea-faring adventures. Henry VIl's
caution had restrained him from unduly backing oversea
enterprise. His son was the first to realize that the future
of England lay on the waters, and his aim to create a navy
ranks among the greatest achievements of his reign. With
the entrance of England into continental politics, came the
realization of her insular situation of which previously she
had hardly been aware. Along with the growth of a new
merchant class whose profit came from oversea trade, there
arose an interest in maritime enterprise. Tudor IotsU-
tion, always direct and wishing to develop a race of sea-
men, encouraged the fisheries by decreeing compulsory
abstinence from meat on two days in the week.
The growing consciousness of England as an insular
and maritime power, was reinforced by practical consid-
erations of trade and interest. Half instinctively, half
as the result of success achieved, ideas shaped themselves
to form traditions which have since become the fibre of
lyGOOgIC
ENGLAND AND THE SEA 289
the race till Englishmen knew that thdr real protection
was the sea.* Tfte extension taken by English sea power
was, however, so gradual that it remained for long almost
unnoticed on the Continent. Nowhere more than in the
discovery of the world, can one discern the British trait of
slowness tn receiving ideas and of tenacity in working them
out. But the reason why the English discovery Tagged
behind in an age of discovery is not hard to find. With
few exceptions, and until a late date, their navigators were
merchants like Robert Tonson and Jasper Campion, or
seamen with the love of buccaneering adventure. Their
virtues were manly but homely. They carried out their
enterprise in a spirit of adventurous gain, not of conquest
or of proselytism. They looked for trade, not gold mmes.
Less directly favoured by the State than Spanish or
Portuguese, English navigators underwent thdr own evo-
lution. Commerce continued as before to be their justi-
fication and gradually attracted the best blood in the
land. Yet the interest in oversea enterprise came to be
something more than chat of money making.
It was owing to Mary's Spanish marriage that Eng-
lishmen were allowed to go to New Spain. To Philips
desire to ingratiate himself with his English subjects was
doubtless due the authorization granted Robert Tonson
to travel in Meidco. The accounts brought back of fabu-
lous wealth fired the English imagination tn a way which
was later to turn so disastrously against the Spaniards.
The first vision of England as a great maritime power
was under Elizabeth. Camden remarked that when in
the early days of her rngn Shan O'Neill came out of
Ireland to perform his submission at court attended by a
bodyguard of axe-bearing "gallow glasses," bareheaded
and longhaired, with yellow tunica and shaggy mantles,
people gazed at them with no less wonder " than nowadays
they do them of China and America. "* During the years
of Elizabeth's long rdgn the English nund Teamed to
travel.
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290 TUIX)R IDEALS
The queen encouraged the seafaring tendencies of the
nation, and freely gave letters for English merchants
to Eastern potentates, in Abyssinia, Persia, China and
Japan. She fostered English trade and appointed consuls
at Aleppo, Babylon, and Basra. The consciousness that
the discoveries of the age made it utterly unlike the past
then impressed itself on every Englishman. Spenser wrote
"Daily now through hardy enterprise
Many great regions arc discovered
Which to late age were never mentioned."
(Prol. to F. Q., 11. Prol 2.)
and bade his countrymen conquer the lands around the
Amazon and the Orinoco.* Shakespeare wrote of those
who sent their sons "to discover islands far away"'
and Churchyard extolled in bad verse the voyages of Eng-
lish seamen. '
Save in matters of religion or of national defence, it is
hard to discern any broad popular movement in the Six-
teenth Century. The greatness of English navigation was
due to the fact that it became popular after the idea was
understood, and while receiving encouragement from the
government was also favored by the people. In 1566
the articles of incorporation of the Merchant Adventurers
were drawn up for the discovery of "lands, territories,
isles, dominions and Seignories unknown." The support
for such enterprise rested on popular roots. To find the
North East passage a company of £6,000 was first created,
and shares were taken of £15 each with the proceeds of
which three ships were bought.'" Sir Francis Watsingham
who died a poor man subscribed for this along with several
noblemen and London merchants." Queen Elizabeth and
some of the leading courtiers like Lord Pembroke took
shares in Hawkins' buccaneering expeditions which were
chiefly intended to capture and sell staves, though Bur-
leigh to his credit would have nothing to do with this.
t: Go Ogle
ENGLAND AND THE SEA 391
The North East passage mostly excited the English-
men's imagination. Sir Humphrey Gilbert could advocate
it as " the only way for our princes to possess the wealth of
all the East. " The spirit of adventure had been let loo&e
and to garrison these new discovered posts many volun-
teers came forward. The list of merchant adventurers
who assisted Drake in his expedition against the Span-
iard in 1587 shows where his main support came from.
His partners were grocers, mercers, and haberdashers.
All save Drake himself were tradespeople.^*
English leadership on sea became individualized in
much the same way it had been on land. T^e discipline
of the nation did not long survive the great test 01 the
Armada, and with the passing of the national danger, the
feeling of personality reasserted itself and something akin
to the enterprises of a feudal baronage in France was now
. repeated in the adventures of English mariners. Such
exploits served as a corrective to the stabilizing conserva-
tive tendencies of the new propertied classes in England.
The greatness of England was due, more than is commonly
suspected, to the rough balance preserved between the
revived class conservatism nursing tradition at home, and
daring individualism finding its opportunity overseas.
The search for wealth, the desire for adventure, patriot-
ism, hatred of Spain, and a restless energy, all combined
to bring about the assertion of this new spirit. It is easy
to single out any one of these motives as dominating.
Those who went in quest of seafaring adventure were
swayed by one or all. Sidney's eagerness to embark for
a voyage of discovery could not have been due solely to the
pursuit of gold. A young country squire like Philip Gawdy
wrote to his brother from aboard the Revenge shortly be-
fore its last 6ght, that he liked the sea and the sea life and
its company. The spirit of adventure had jMUsed into
the nation's blood, no longer confined to a few out stream-
ing through every class.
The sea was soon to find its intellectual defence. When
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392 TUIX)R IDEALS
Essex in a letter " said to have been written by Bacon, ad-
dressed the Council, on embarking for the expedition
against Cadiz, in June, 1596, the argument he brought
forward was that the queen would thereby become "Mis-
tress of the Sea which is the greatness that the Queen of an
island should most aspire unto. " England, he argued, was
a small state not extraordinarily rich and defended only
by itself. Its interest was to use the sea in order to strike
down its enemies. The same idea of sea power is expressed
by Bacon. Alluding to the vast growth of navigation, he
says of England that she has become "the lady of the sea"
and that "the commandment of the sea is an abridgment
or a quintessence of an universal monarchy."" When
Drake, "noble pirate" though he was," on his first sight
of the Pacific prayed God " to give him Hfe and leave to
sail an English ship upon that sea" he showed a spirit far
higher than the desire for loot, and his prayer is compar-
able to the dying Petrarch clasping to his bosom a manu-
script of Homer he could not read. British superiority was
only then beginning to be recognized and the Dutchman,
Van Linschoten, who had been in the Portuguese service
could write
"They are victorious stout and valiant; and all their enter-
prises do take so good effect that they are thereby become
lords and masters of the sea."
Rough sailors and merchants of elementary education
discovered the world, but it will always be the greatness
of a clergyman like Hakluyt to have been the first to real-
ize where lay the destinies of England and the direction
in which it was desirable to extend her interests. When in
1580 Arthur Pet and Charles Jackman were sent to find
the North East passage, Hakluyt drew up directions for
them to note alt the characteristics of the lands they saw
and of the savages encountered, and observe everything.
They were to take with them specimens of English com-
modities with a view to trade, and lai^ maps of England
lyGOOgIC
ENGLAND AND THE SEA 293
and London, " to make show of your city and let the river
be drawn full of ships of all sorts to make the more show
of your great trade. "" Lest there be objection to traf-
ficking with unbelievers he cited the example of King
Solomon in antiquity and in recent times of French, Gen-
oese, and Venenans, in thdr intercourse with the Grand
Signior.
Reading the accounts of voyages one is impressed by
the numerous adventures of undistinguished people who
came from the humbler walks of life. One Richard Has-
leton, for instance, embarking on an English merchantman
bound for Patras is captured by Turkish corsairs and
taken to Algiers. Made to work as a galley slave for four
years, he is shipwrecked on Spanish soil where he finds
himself denounced as an English heretic by one of his
companions and sent to the prison of the Inquisition at
Majorca. He spits in the face of the inquisitor and is
punished by solitary confinement in an underground cell.
A year later he effects his escape after adventures worthy
of a Casanova. He is recaptured and tortured on the rack.
Once more he escapes, and after fresh adventures finds a
small boat in which he sails to the Barbary Coast. There
he is taken by the Moors, and the same attempt as had
been made by the Inquisition to induce him to forsake
his Protestant faith is now made for him to turn Moslem.
He seeks to escape, is recaptured, tries again more suc-
cessfully and at last, after incredible dangers^ is freed by
the assistance of the great London merchant Richard
Staper."
It is difficult to single out adventures where so many
related by Hakluyt still preserve thdr interest. TTius a
certain Miles Phillips took a minor part in Hawkins' ill-
starred expedition in 1568. After firing a n^ro town on
the Guinea Coast and kidnapping 500 ne|;roes, they suled
with these to the Spanish Main. At San Juan de Ulloa,
the Spanish fleet with the new Viceroy on board, came
upon them unexpectedly. Hawkins who feared the
lyGOOgIC
294 TUDOR IDEALS
queen's displeasure did not wish to fight and made an
arrangement with the Spaniards which the latter treacher-
ously violated, destroying thegrcatgr part of the English
fleet. So much is history. \Phillip33 adventures b^n
shortly afterward. 'i, \
Hawkins, who had been left With onlV one vessel, was
obliged by short^e of water and^food to. land sorae of
his crew on the coast of Mexico. Phillipa was among
these and after many narrow escapes fhrnfarowning and
hunger, being almost killed by the Indians, reached Tam-
pico in an exhausted condition, where he and his com-
panions were held as prisoners by the Spaniards. The
governor threatens to hang them all but sends them
instead to the City of Mexico, to be distributed as slaves.
There he meets with fresh dangers at the hands of the
Inquisition. In spite of the orthodox answers which he
gave with remarkable presence of mind, they scent heresy
in an Englishman and condemn him to serve in a monas-
tery, wearing the San Benito, while some of his less fortu-
nate companions were burned at the stake. At the Mon-
astery he is appointed an overseer of the Indian workmen
who were building a church and learns their language per-
fectly, which was later to be of great use to him. Others
of his companions abandoning all hope of return, entered
into the service of the Inquisition and married n^ro
women or mestizos, but Phillips never gave up the Idea
of liberty though he had been warned by the Inquisi-
tion that if he tried to escape he would be burned as a
relapsed heretic. He described how many of the Span-
iards, even among the friars, loathed the Inquisition but
stood in awe of it. To divert suspicion he bound himself
as an apprentice to a silk weaver. Learning of Drake
sailing up the Pacific he accompanies a Spanish expedition
against him, but arrives too late, Drake having already
gone. He then plans to join the Spanish fleet at San Juan
dc Ulloa, passing himself off as a soldier. At Vera Cruz
he is arrested by mistake but recognized when brought
lyGOOgIC
ENGLAND AND THE SEA 295
before the judge, is ordered to be sent back to Mexico
City. On the way there he escapes by filing off his chains,
and with the help of friendly Indians wanders across the
mountains to Central America. There he iinds a Spanish
ship on which he succeeds in embarking, but is again rec-
ognized and discovers that the Captain intends deliver-
ing him to the Inquisition at Seville. Pretending to sus-
pect nothing, as soon as he arrives he makes his escape,
and hides for three months. After that he enlists as a sol-
dier to go to Majorca where at last he finds an English
vessel and returns after an absence of fifteen years.
There are the adventures of Thomas Cavendish, a
gentleman by birth, who having squandered his fortune
turns pirate and with three ships of which the largest was
of 140 tons and the smallest of 40, with a total crew of
125, started in 1596 to sail around the globe plundering
the Spaniards wherever he met them and burning thdr set-
tlements along the Pacific,
For the most part included in Hakluyt, arc tales of sea-
men and merchants, who tempted by the hope of gain and
adventure, sailed to distant parts where though the Span-
iards and Portuguese had preceded them, they brought
a keener energy and one less crippled by official interfer-
ence. Returning to England, they came back with reports
of the riches to be won in distant regions.
Narratives of this kind which occurred to men without
other distinction, raised England from its past insularity
to a point where it felt in touch with the rest of the world.
When the dramatists placed the universe under contribu-
tion a new generation of seamen had sailed in every ocean.
The early narration of voyages will hardly stand com-
parison with similar Italian accounts, many of which were
then translated into English.'* Yet Giles Fletcher's "Rus-
sian Commonwealth," modelled, perhaps, on the rela-
tions of Venetian ambassadors, contains a remarkably
interesting description of Russian government, institutions
and customs, which revolted Fletcher. The book was
lyGOOgIC
296 TUDOR IDEALS
suppressed at the instigation of the Company of Mer-
chants trading with Muscovy, who feared its effects on
their trade. A great solicitude for this was already no-
ticeable, and made a friendly observer like Languet
dread lest England be led astray by the thirst for gold.
A poet like Richard Barnfield in the preface to a not very
inspired poem entitled "Lady Pecunia or the Prwse of
Money," remarks that "the bravest voyages in the world
have been made for gold; for it men have ventured by sea
to the furthest parts of the earth. " The books on dis-
covery were calculated to influence the natural love of
adventure and the thirst for gain. English courage was
exalted above that of other nations and the deficiencies
in navigation which had hitherto caused their backward-
ness, were corrected."
The feeling of energy which we couple with the Eliz-
abethan age arises from the exploits of its mariners.
England's giant progress came through dissociating her-
self from the tangle of Continental politics and venturing
into distant enterprise where all the nation could find its
share. Men looked back on the past with the conscious-
ness of the strides taken. Laurence Kenys, Raleigh's
pilot companion, wrote that it was natural for England
in the days of Henry VII to look with suspicion on the
tale of an adventurer like Columbus. But "the pleasure
of that incredulity lieth even now heavy on our shoulders."
The advance taken by Spaniards and Portuguese was the
handicap which spurred the English on to great deeds
and made him write that the chief reward of virtue lay
in action. The valiant enterprise of the age would seem
fabulous to future generations."
In 1598 after war weariness had been felt in France and
England, the question of peace with Spain was considered.
In spite of the difliculties of continuing an offensive war in
the Low Countries, and the small results to be expected
from attacking the coasts of Spain, advantage was seen in
prolonging war in America. If an army of 10,000 men
lyGOOgIC
ENGLAND AND THE SEA vfi
could be sent to colonize the Isthmus of Panama, not only
would it stop all Spanish trade, but it would be welcome to
the rest of Europe who wished for nothing more than " free
traffic in America. "** The new British imperialism with
its view beyond the seas knew that this would mean the
future prosperity of England.
If the quest for gold had been its only desire, the age
would never have contained such seeds of greatness. Ra^
leigh seeking to retrieve his fallen fortunes in Guiana,
went there with no sordid ideas and could write that it
sorted ill with the offices of honour which he held "to
run from cape to cape and from place to place" for pil-
lage. Seeking arguments for colonizing Guiana he found
them in the cruelty of the Spaniards toward the natives
and his gentle feelings vented themselves in sympathy
toward these.
The desire for colonization was the new element to
make for English greatness and rescue tt from the sordid-
ness of early piratical adventure. Sidney who had been
most eager to accompany Drake and was only restrained
by the queen's interdiction, had formed all his plans for an
extended colonization in America when he left for his
death at Zutphen. Among his reasons was the conviction
that with the forthcoming union with Scotland, the na-
tion would be too small for the population without the
outlet of foreign enterprise." He obtained a grant "to
discover, search, find out, view and inhabit certain parts
of America not yet discovered" and to acquire right over
the smaller areas. Sir Walter Raleieh entertained the
same idea of colonies as de^rable places to settle the
"needy people of our country," whose destitution would
otherwise lead them to crime." Others like Sir George
Peckham and Christopher Carhill believed that the ccd-
onies offered the remedy for vagabondage.
Capt^n John Smith in his e]^>edition to Vimnia, was
both to preach and practice this new colonial ideal and
could write in words of greater consequence than even he
lyGOOgIC
298 TUDOR IDEALS
suspected. "What so truly suits with honour and hon<
esty as the discovery of things unknown, creating towns,
peopling countries, informing the ignorant, reforming
things unjust, teaching virtue, and to gain our mother
country a kingdom to attend her, to find employment
for those that are idle because theyknow not what todo." "
And Drayton's noble ode "To the Virginian Voyage"
praises the
" Heroic minds
worthy your country's name
That honour still pursue
Whilst loitering hinds
Lurk here at home with shame."
In a speech delivered in Parliament on the Virginia
plantation, Bacon foretold that sometimes a grain of mus-
tard seed grows into a great tree, and spoke of the colo-
nies as very necessary outlets to a populous nation and
profitable if well handled.'* Hakluyt could write that if
anyone thought that an era of universal peace would
close this inovement he would be much deceived. If the
f)eriod of wars should come to an end there would be far
ess employment, and he urged the gentry of Elngland to-
ward Virginia rather than to the pursuit of "soft un-
profitable pleasures." "
The settlement of Virginia b^ns modem American
history, but it is also the great offshoot of the spirit of
the Renaissance. There is a deeper connexion than is
at first apparent, between the art of Michelangelo, the
fervour of Luther, the poetry of Shakespeare, and the
colonizing ventures of Englishmen in Virginia.
lyGOOgIC
IX. NATIONALISM
Nowhere were the new ideals of the Renaissance more
welcome than at the court of Henry VIII. Hardly any-
where were they slower in percolating through the mass
than among the English people. No one welcomed for-
eigners more heartily than the king, nowhere were they
more hated by the population. The upper classes aped
foreign fashions to the point of absurdity. An instinc-
tive nationalism was the gathering cry of the London
crowd. Nowhere were the people rougher, nowhere were
gentlemen more courteous. In such contradictions lies
the difficulty of framing judgments which seek to pierce
beyond broad generalization.
The Renaissance originated fewer new forces than is
often supposed. Most of those which came to the sur-
face in the Sixteenth Century had long been known, but
they had previously been spasmodic and remained with-
out continuity, instinctive and often inarticulate. The
sense of nationality had at times acted vigorously dur-
ing the Middle Ages. But it required the Sixteenth Cen-
tury to formulate its theory and discover for it a literary
and scholarly expression.
The new nationalism, by an odd paradox, was born of
foreign origin. In part this was intellectual. When Eng-
lishmen realized that everywhere on the Continent men
were exalting their origins and magnifying their achieve-
ments, when they understood the contempt of Italians
and Spaniards for all that was not of their own race,
they felt the time had come to be proud of British deeds.
But in part it was also instinctive and economic prompted
by the emigration of Flemings and the prominence of
Italians in the commercial life of London.
Hatred against the foreigner had existed in England
lyGOOgIC
300 TUEX)R IDEALS
since the earliest times.^ So long as Britain was poor
of ideas, and backward in industry, an unorganized nation-
alism could not prevent foreign elements from entering
into the land and creating their own centres of diffii^on.
But the gradual extension of these aroused an opposi-
tion which became more articulate through familiarity
till its evolution led to something very different from
the brutish force at its origin.
Nationalism tends to keep down the saturation point
in a community and prevents the alteration of its charac-
ter by any sudden infusion of extraneous elements. The
effect of its action is conservative and critical. It is
usually most conspicuous at two periods in a country's
development. The first when still a somewhat primitive
community, it feels resentful of novelty and of whatever
is not fashioned in its image. The second, is when the
point of saturation in a highly developed community
threatens to be exceeded and thus automatically pro-
vokes reaction. In both instances it is a popular force
having its roots deep in the masses.
With broader perspective, the Tudor crown welcomed
foreigners in whom it detected a source of potential
wealth and an element which so long as it had not identi-
fied itself with the country, could never become a source
of danger to the throne. Royal protection was necessary
to these. In 1517, Dr. Beale preached before a popular
audience in London that each nation had receivul its
boundaries from God, that the land they stood on was a
perpetual inheritance to Englishmen, and the increase of
poverty was due to aliens. He caused a riot aeainst the
foreigners which Wolsey had to put down witfi ruthless
severity.
Hall relates in his " Chronicle," that the muldtude of-
strangers was so great in London that poor English work-
men could scarcely get a living.* He attributed the feel-
ing against them to foreign contempt for the English.
The reason is fanciful and the real ground was one which
lyGOOgIC
NATIONALISM 301
has existed in every age and in every land namely, the
jealousy and hatred for any alien community whose in-
fluence, though in the end beneficial to the nation, is out
of proportion to their number, and whose singularity of
language or of custom draws attention to their activity
and success.
The hatred was not peculiar to French, Italians or Flem-
ings, it was against all foreigners. Their influx into
England from the Low Countries, Northern Germany and
France was far greater than is commonly suspected. In
1540 it was said that one-third the population of London
consisted of alien artisans who were mainly employed in
the working of metals, weaving and tapestry.' Wyatt's
Rebellion was nominally undertaken to prevent England
"from overrunning by foreigners."*
The spirit of nationalism descending into the mob pro-
duced violence. In higher circles it was at the root of
great changes and of jealous watchfulness. In England,
as in Northern Europe, the success of the Reformation
had rested on nationalist grounds. The Pope's inter-
ference as a foreigner, and the intervention of Italian
ecclesiastics, had always been resented. The desire for
a national church rested on real foundations. With the
tide of nationalism running high, Roman domination
could not have survived. Even English Catholics felt
that some change was necessary and Starkey makes
Cardinal Pole declare that just as the common law should
no longer be written in French but in the common tongue,
so all public and private prayers ought to be said in the
vulgar tongue.*
In his " Device of Succession," Edward VI gave among
the reasons for passing over his sisters, Mary and Eliza-
beth, the likelihood of their marrying strangers born out of
the realm, who would incline to their own laws and prac-
tices instead of those in England. Mary married the
King of Spain, Her subjects who did not object to her
burning Protestants were outspoken against the marriage.
lyGOOgIC
3M TUIX)R IDEALS
solely on grounds of nationalism. It was stipulated that
Philip as consort should enjoy no power in England with-
out the Council's consent. His own bodyguard were to
be kept on their ships and forbidden to land in order
not to excite popular animosity against them.
Later, in the negotiations connected with Elizabeth's
proposed marriage to the Dulte of Anjou, the same de-
mands were made. The latter while enjoying the tide of
king, was to have no part in the affairs of the realm. He
was to appoint no foreigner to any English office, alter
nothing in the law, and preserve all customs. Neither the
queen nor her children were to be removed from the realm
without her consent or that of the peers, while all strong-
holds were to be guarded by native Englishmen.' Fear
of the unpopularity of any foreign marriage was among
the reasons which dissuaded the queen from contracting
it. Yet one anonymous writer of that age would have
welcomed a foreign prince for "if he live and marry in
England, both himself and his children will become Eng-
lish in a little space, while as a foreigner he would never
dare to perpetrate the crimes which native princes had
committed."'
A strong national spirit bordering on intolerance pre-
vailed in England. Even Fynes Moryson, always nady
to eulogize his countrymen, admits they had a spleen
against strangers for growing rich among them.' An
Anti-Alien Bill was introduced in 1593, against which Sir
Robert Cecil argued with great eloquence in favour of a
more liberal spirit toward foreigners, maintaining that
England's giving shelter to the oppressed had brought
great honour to the realm.* Others who shared these
views pointed out that the prosperity of Antwerp and
Venice came from the liberal facilities given to foreign
traders. Few were able to rise high enough above preju-
dice, to discover the slower processes of silent assimila-
tion which made Englishmen out of the descendants of
foreigners.
lyGOOgIC
NATIONALISM 303
British nationalism, which resented the su^estion of
foreign influence in England, saw no contradiction in
imposing itself on Ireland. The policy of English rule
since the earliest days had been to Anglicize the land, by
forbidding the use of the Irish language, the Irish dress
and even the Irish practice of riding without saddles. At
the Irish Parliament in 1498 it was enacted that English
dress and arms should be worn and the upper classes
should ride "in a saddle after the English fashion." The
dVellers within the Pale were compelled to adopt English
manners, and attempts were made to separate them from
the uncivilized parts of Ireland.'" Heny VIII gave Eng-
lish titles and names to Irish lords and tried to educate
their sons at his court. MacGilliphraddin became Fitz-
Patrick, and Morrough O'Brien and Ulich Bourke, Earls
of Thomond and Clanrickard.
Instead of the Irish becoming English it was the reverse.
The futility of supposed blood ties in nationality was soon
to be shown by Ireland where the leaders of the revolt
were mostly of English descent whose ties with the land
proved far more binding than the old blood connexion.
The denationalization of the English in Ireland became a
source of amazement. Spenser remarked that their de-
scendants had completely identified themselves with the
land and were more hostile to the English than the Irish
themselves." The Veres became the MacSweeneys. Eng-
lish families "d^enerating into this barbarism have
changed their names after the Irish tongue," '* and were
ashamed to have had any community with British fore-
bears. Nothing surprised the English so much as to find
educated men among the " wild Irish," some of them good
Latinists; the rebel O'Rourke had been an Oxford student.
They felt amazed that an English education did not
always imply English sympathy.
The most idealist of poets advocated the stern suppres-
sion of Irish nationality. So hberal a writer as Richard
Becon" who preaches the good will and consent of the
lyGOOgIC
304 TUDOR IDEALS
people, yet urged the repression of Irish national manifes-
tations. The Age had not advanced to any tolerance for
other nationalities where these were inferior in the scale
of civilization. Sympathy toward an alien culture was
unknown.
Oddly enough the feeling of conscious nationalism in
language was first heard most eloquently in Scotland.
Gawain Douglas prided himself on his literary produc-
tions in "Scottish," and made frequent references to "our
Scottish tongue. " In the rhymed preface to his transla-
tion of Virgil, he tried to write in his own language which
he had learned to speak as a page, and to use as few £ng~
lish words as possible. Sir David Lyndsay defended his
own desire to write in the common tongue. Lowland Scot-
land bordered by the Gaelic Highlands and the Tweed,
found a patriotic argument in its language. James VI
took pride that his treatise in verse was the only one of
its kind in the Scottish tongue which differs from the
English "in sundry rules of poesy."
In England literary consciousness appeared in the de-
sire to purge the language of its borrowings. William
Thynne republished Chaucer calling him the poet who,
in spite of his age of ignorance, had been the first to rescue
English from its barbarous uses. He referred to the im-
provement in modern continental tongues and to the corre-
sponding movement in England toward the "beautifying
and bettering" of the language. So great a classical
scholar as Sir Thomas Cheke realized the importance of
striving toward a purer English, " unsullied and unman-
gled with borrowings of other tongues." "
The consciousness of literary nationality was everywhere
increasing. By intelligent application of the spirit of
antiquity the seed of modernity was sown. Where Chau-
cer and Lydgate had apologized for writing in the vulgar
tongue, Ascham, dedicating his "Toxophilus" to the king,
remarked that though he might have written it in Latin,
or Greek, yet he preferred to do so "in the English tongue
lyGOOgIC
NATIONALISM 305
for Englishmen," anticipating blame for this because it
had hitherto only been used in writing by the ignoraot.
Ascham who was a literary nationalist deprecated mix-
ing languages and reproved the introduction of foragn
words." With the same idea, the author of the famous
preface to the " Shepheard's Calendar " singled out Spenser
for having labourol to restore forgotten Elnglish words
to their proper vintage, instead of patching up the lan-
guage with pieces and rags borrowed from French and
Italian. A new feeling of the literary excellence of Eng-
lish had arisen. The poet Gascoigne was to urge the
use of monosyllables to seem the truer Englishman^ and
smell the less of the inkhom."
Where Bembo had praised the Tuscan, Du Bellay the
French, and the Spaniard, Vjves could write in Ladn to
advocate the use of the vernacular, a schoolmaster like Pal-
grave dedicating his rendering of Aco/astus to Henry VIII,
laid stress on the importance of proper instruction bang
given in both Latin and English and noted with pride
that the English language had then reached its "highest
perfection."
The scholarly pride of the poet formed part of the new
consciousness of life discovered by the Italians who like
the Greeks r^arded "all other nations to be barbarous
and unlettered." " Gabriel Harvey wrote that Italy,
France and Spain had wilfully set out to advance thor
tongues above Greek and Latin and rightly esteemed
their own national poets, whereas in England everything
English was disparaged." Classicist though he was, he
hoped that England also would assert itself and cease to
care for what was done in "ruinous Athena or decayed
Rome. " His exaggerations were not without their grain
of truth. National political unity had run ahead of cul-
tural development. English scholars were now anxious
to prove that Elngland, far from bdng a "barbarous
nation," was also a mother of letters.
Such forms of nationalism, breathing satisfaction (or
lyGOOgIC
3o6 TUDOR IDEALS
whatever came from the soil, were healthy and useful when
not exaggerated, for at times they led to an undue ex-
uberance of vanity. John Coke in the "Debate between
the Heralds of England and France" of 1550, discovered
ground for British superiority since the day when Bru-
tus brought four Athenian philosophers to the Univeraty
he had founded at Stanford." That extravagances should
be committed in the name of nationalism was natural.
The fact that English learning was lacking in the com-
manding personality of the greater continental contempo-
raries caused eagerness to hide such shortcomings. John
Bale wrote patriotic effusions over obscure scholars. Har-
rison asserted that the English clergy were everywhere
reputed to be the most learned.^ Francis Mere's praise
of Shakespeare has survived, but his enthusiasm for
every form of English culture becomes grotesque when
Thomas Atchelow and Matthew Royden are cited to
prove the superiority of British bards.
Carew claims preeminence for English over all other
tongues because it had borrowed from them all.*' W. C.
in "Polimanteia" asserted the superiority of the new
English poetry over its French and Italian predecessors.
Let Tasso and Ariosto, du Betlay and Ronsard, admit that
in Spenser and Daniel they had found their masters.**
Thomas Nash expresses readiness to back Spenser against
all the world. ^*
The Italian, Polydore Virgil, the first to approach Eng-
lish history in a critical spirit, brought on himself a storm
of censure indignant at his disproof of early legends. Tlie
reflective attitude of man expressed through scholarship
required a certain maturity of mind to ripen. The grow-
ing feeling of nationalism which was to be the political
accompaniment of this self-consciousness was, however,
responsible for the first study in England of British antiq-
uities and of whatever might contribute to exalt the na-
tional origins.
Scholarship assumed a patriotic colour. The pride of
lyGOOgIC
NATIONALISM 307
achievement and the wish to rival the past were attached
to this feeHng. On the Continent learned men likeOrosius
wilfully distorted the truth; others like Gaguin extolled
the deeds of their nation at the expense of others."
English scholars partly in emulation, or because they felt
the same currents, magnified Britain and whatever per-
tained to their native land.
The new spirit of literary nationalism was not peculiar
to any one country. Hubert Languet relates how German
scholars claimed Teutonic origins for most of Northern
France and could smile at the "Cambro-Briton," Hum-
phrey LIuyd, furious to be called an Englishman.*" Such
excess of nationalism was only the counterpart of the
political imperialism of the age which veered around till
it assumed a religious form. It was the instinctive re-
action against the internationalism of the early learning.
The humanists had felt at home in every centre of letters,
and remained without patriotism in their attachment to
the ancient literature, but the new generation by a na-
tural reaction applied scholarly methods derived from
antiquity to their own national culture.
For the first time all forms of English life aroused in-
terest. William Thynne passed his life in collecting, edit-
ing and publishing the manuscripts of Chaucer. His son
Francis to give proof of a critical discernment not often
associated with the age, entered into a minute examina-
tion of philological questions in his criticism of Spcaight's
edition of the poet. The early origins of the English
language were studied." In 1574 the History of Alfred
was printed in Anglo-Saxon characters with an interlinear
English translation.
With men like Camden, Spelman, Stow, Norden and
Caius, a novel curiosity was taken in the antiquities of
England, national and local. Although the interest in
ruins was never so great in England as on the Continent,
English scholars were alive to the importance of those dis-
-ed on their own soil. Holinshed described minutely
lyGOOgIC
3o8 TUDOR IDEALS
the remains at Bath and made conjectures about various
pieces of Roman statuary. He devoted a chapter to the
antiquities found in England, especially cairns, and the
Roman remains still in existence near Chesterford and
Burton as well as the mosaic pavements at Ancaster.
Harrison, who collected ancient coins, comments on the
antiquities continually being discovered near localities
where Roman legions had wintered.
London never exercised such appeal to the English
imagination as Rome did to the Italian, but it, also, be-
came a source of pride. Stow, who begins his survey of
I^ndon by dwelling on the Roman writers who had glori-
fied their city, found everywhere interest in the buildings,
monuments and foundations of his native city. Such
books as Harrison's "Description of England" and Sir
Thomas Smith's "Commonwealth of England" show the
new curiosity of man in his surroundings. Where Smith
analyzes the machinery of government, Harrison describes
the lives and customs of the people. Each aimed to leave
a permanent record of events, and Smith in his final words
declares his intention not to draw the description of an
ideal commonwealth but of England as it "standcth and
is governed at this day, the 28th of March 1565." His
new comparative method brings out the elements of
difference between England and the continental states
where Roman civil law was used. Harrison aims to give
a truthful account of his ^e, with its social forces and
the spirit of its life. His claim to be the first who has
described " this isle of Britain " is not strictly true, but he
was first to enter into his task from the modem point of
view of interest in the life about him.
Such books, written often in a spirit of national self-
praise, were less modelled on the works of antiquity than
on continental prototypes. Everywhere the fresh sap of the
Renaissance was producing its lesser shoots in books ren-
dered original by their specious purpose, and whose inter-
est springs as much from uncritical criticism as from the
lyGOOgIC
NATIONALISM 309
merits of their scholarsliip. They pertain to the age far
more by their purpose than by the ponderous quality of
their learning. The activities of the century were not iso-
lated and detached, but closely associated. The interest
presented by learning lay in it having left the seclusion
of monasteries and colleges to enter life. The Academies
which then began to be formed like the "Society of Anti-
quaries," providtti the first meeting ground where those
occupied in affairs like Archbishop Parker held inter-
course with such scholars as Cotton, Selden and Speed.
A cultivated society came out of this headed by men like
Sir Robert Cotton and Sir Thomas Bodley, to pronde new
contact between life and learning.
lyGOOgIC
X. INTERNATIONALISM
The Church alone during the Middle Ages reminded men
of their brotherhood. It must always be the boast of
Rome to have upheld a universal ideal inherited from an-
tiquity, which came near to preserving the civilized world
within its fold. The spirit of the Renaissance swept over
Europe at a time when this feeling was in deeay, receding
before the rise of a national consciousness which forced
even the vicar of Christ to become an Italian prince. In-
ternationalism derived from a Universal Church, took
a secular form in letters. The common origin of classical
culture provided the new bond of union between nations.
The political justification of internationalism lies in
economy of effort. Alien rule seems less alien where local
laws and customs remain unchanged. Rome of the Em-
perors understood this and its imperialism became by
policy tolerant and cosmopolitan. Henry VIII's conti-
nental ambition made him welcome foreigners and ad-
vance his claim for election as Emperor, on the ground
that he "is of the Germany tongue."' The age found
little interest jn theoretical foundations of race, yet its
rulers groped toward a new imperialism in the same way
as the masses groped toward nationalism. Henry VIII
could give the name of "Emperor" to one of his new
ships. Later Somerset's plan of union between England
and Scotland, proposed that the names of the two coun-
tries be abandoned, that the United Kingdom be called
the Empire, and its Sovereign "Emperor of Great
Britain." ^
Imperialism is always the result of a superabundance
of energy fretting within its own walls. The mistake lies
in regarding it as a purely political phenomenon attached
lyGOOgIC
INTERNATIONALISM 3 1 1
to the idea of soWreignty, instead of recognizing its in-
tellectual and economic aspects. It has been unduly nar-
rowed instead of widened. In this sense, the absorption
of new elements from abroad was to be a necessary step
before England could hope to attain her higher destiny.
Foreign ideas, whether coming from scholars, or naviga-
tors, the growth of foreign intercourse, the desire for for-
eign luxuries, were as many spurs with which to prick into
action the dormant energy of a proud and gifted race.
They were the ferment needed to leaven the English
people. England became a great nation only after her
outlook had become internationalized through contact
with the great forces of the world and she had acquired
consciousness of her opportunity toward these.
This came about through several different ways. After
their long isolation, Englishmen felt the magnet which
drew them outside their own island. New relations fol-
lowed the usual course which developed from ignorance
and hostility, to imitation, and from imitation to orig-
inality. Such evolution embraced the history of the
century during which time alien ingredients became grad-
ually absorbed into British life where they acted as civil-
izing processes. Foreign elements only enter the life
of a nation when they are able to offer some kind of
superiority.
The English became an imperial race, not because of
the square miles of territory they sought to colonize, but
because their permanent vision went beyond the sea and
because the courage and fortitude necessary to achieve
great results ran in their blood. The growing call for
high adventure and reward was the reason which then
made England a great power.
Alien ingredients only seem dangerous to the man who
stays at home, and rightly so, for he has nothing satisfac-
tory to oppose to them. The sailor who realized that he
was carrying with him a little of British soil, did not feel
this risk. The man who fought the Spaniards could copy
lyGOOgIC
312 TUDOR IDEALS
Spanish fashions in his dress and use Spanish oaths in his
talk, without feeling that he was one whit less an English-
man. Hence, by an odd paradox, the real promoters of
English greatness were those who were ready to drink
from foreign sources and found nothing amiss in introduc-
ing foreign elements info their parlance. It may seem
farfetched to find connexion between the early humanists
and those who sailed the Spanish Main. Yet scholars
first brought this wider outlook into England, and the
ideas born from classical texts were gradually to extend
until they sent Drake to sack the Spanish galleons.
The early cosmopolitanism which made Colet and More
believe in the brotherhood of man was religious and intel-
lectual. When the rift of creed split Europe in two, the
fragments of the more civilizing aspects of internationalism
were preserved by a universal scholarship. During the
Middle Ages men had wandered freely from one univer-
sity to another. Something of this spirit was preserved,
for it was the practice of the crown in England to send
promising scholars abroad for study." The novelty of
the lesson which Italy alone had once been able to teach
was no more so great. Much of the difference in intellec-
tual level between England and the Continent had been
bridged over, while a new political bias due to religious
grounds made men either violent partisans or else left
them indifferent.
A few scholars could still correspond. Bud£ exchanged
letters with Cuthbert Tunstall and Richard Pace, Ascham
with Peter Ramus, Camden with a number of French men
of letters. But toward the end of the century even this
intercourse had diminished in spite of the foreign schol-
ars and religious refugees who visited England. Bacon
lamented the fact that not more international ties bound
together the universities and preached fraternity in
learning, but the unity of Europe had been shattered.
Such cosmopolitanism as now existed was that of the in-
dividual and except for the Catholic priesthood not of a
lyGOOgIC
INTERNATIONALISM 313
class. Humanism in its early sense was dead, but its seeds
had ripened into a new feeling of the inherent community
of mankind. Shylock's speech to Salario pleads the
brotherhood of man. Samuel Daniel could write that the
"happy pen
Should not be vassaled to one monarchy
But dwell with all the better worid of men
Whose spirits all are of one community." *
Expatriation was not infrequent. During the Catho-
lic Reaction, the Society of Jesus did much to create new
international bonds which stretched across frontiers. Rob-
ert Parsons and his band of English Jesuits, unlike most
English Catholics, were British only in name.
Some English renegades became Moslems and tn the
fight between the Dolphin of London and five Turidsh
ships, three of these, according to a contemporary ac-
count, were captained by Englishmen.* The Dey of Al-
giers had appointed a renegade Englishman as his treas-
urer." Strangest of all were the adventures of William
Adams who made Japan his home, married a Japanese
wife and built the first Japanese navy.
Scholarly internationalism was dead, but popular in-
ternationalism broi:^ht cultivation to the masses. Ijke
the overflow of a reservoir new ideas then poured into
England. Innumerable translations from forrign tongues
gave a smattering of culture to those who had before been
without it.
So late as the Fifteenth Century the English tongue
had not altogether established itself in higher cinues.
Several of the earlier letters in the Paston correspondence
are in French. The long connexion with France had not
yet severed all the links which made for a distinct na^
tionality. The practice was frequent for EngUshmen of
family to be sent to Paris to complete their education.
Erasmus' first connexion with England came about in
this way. Anne Boleyn, had been brought up at the
lyGOOgIC
314 TUDOR IDEALS
French court from which she returned with the poet
Nicholas Bourbon in her train. Henry VIII's love letters
to her were nearly all in a French which shows thorough
familiarity with the tongue. Later in the century, James
VI, writing to Elizabeth on more than one occasion, ex-
pressed himself in French.
French influence was powerful in Scotland. France was
full of Scotchmen, from the archers of the king to the
poor students of the college who went there to find for-
tune, and even in compliment James VI could say to
La Mothe Fenelon, the French Ambassador, that, though
he had two eyes, two ears and two hands, he had but
one heart and that was French.
An interchange between the two lands was continuous.
French tutors were found in many great houses.' French
humanists like Loys le Roy and Henry Estienne and
poets like Ronsard and Monchrestien, came to England.
French Huguenot tracts were translated into English.
French phrase books were frequent," and one of the first
was printed by Wynkyn de Worde about the year 1500.
The fact that this contains rules for table manners and let-
ters which a prentice was supposed to write to his master to
announce the arrival of ships at Southampton, indicates
that it was intended for wider diffusion than in the circle
of the court.
It is commonly supposed that English was still ignored
in France in the Sixteenth Century, yet Sir David Lynd-
say's Poems were printed in English in Paris in 1558*
and English poems were also printed in Paris." English-
men like John Eliot wrote in French, and Gascoigne com-
posed his " Hermit's Tale" in French as well as in English.
The anonymous T. B. C. translating La Primaudaye's
"French Academie" in 1586, speaks of retaining many of
the author's words which "will be found harsh at the
first," but in a short time will be read as smooth as other
Greek or Latin words which are now taken for mere Eng-
lish. The use of these " tendeth to the enriching of our
lyGOOgIC
INTERNATIONALISM 315
own language. " The vocabulary was added to in this way.
much to the disgust of purists.
The fashion for evetything foreign had swept over Eng-
land. The young gallant enters Paul's churchyard to
buy Ronsard, Aretine and the Spanish writers with which
to sharpen his wits. Foreign fashions excited disparage-
ment of the native product. Nash wrote "Tut says our
English Italian the finest wits our climate sends forth are
but dry brained dolts in comparison of other countries.""
Puritans and nationalists were alarmed by such tend-
encies which were thought to encourage Romanism. By
a curious but frequent paradox foreign influences aroused
English nationalism. The new literary nationalism at-
tacked the very elements it copied.
A chorus of writers united to deplore this love of for-
eign fashions among the English.'* Long before Nash
and Greene, Laurence Humphrey complained of his coun-
trymen being "delighted rather with foreign wits and
traffic than their own countries." Only what came from
abroad, whether in language, apparel or Iwhaviour, was
prized." Even Lyiy felt it necessary to warn his read-
ers against the danger of foreign travel."
lyGOOgIC
XL CLASSICISM AND THE UNIVERSITIES
In the preface to his edition of Cato, Caxton singled out
for praise the example of the Romans, who out of de-
votion to their city sacrificed property and life. An-
tique virtue was always before the eyes of the men of
the Renaissance. It provided them with a conception
of life enlarged beyond the castle, guild and monastery.
In this sense, the lesson of the classics though not inten-
tionally democratic, tended toward the idea of man's
place in the state outside the narrow groove in which the
Middle Ages had set him. The Renaissance spirit wel-
comed at court because of extolling the power of the
prince, came as a revelation to those below, to whom it
represented a far wider horizon. Almost unconsciously
it evolved the idea of the modern state where social dif-
ferences depend no longer on legal restrictions. Men dis-
covered that in an age which they recognized was further
advanced than their own, humanity had made easier the
liberation of individual energy and talent. The lesson
of the classics greater than that conveyed by its texts,
pointed to the discovery of a new concepdon of life-
Humanism was never the revelation to England that
it had been to Italy where for a century it arrested the
promise of its original genius. South of the Alps, it had
grown as a plant of native growth flourishing on its own
soil. The many-headed Italian structure was as favour-
able to a learning which could not exist without patron-
age, as i t was unfavourable to national unity. In England,
where humanism was imported, the normal centres of
attraction were confined to the court and two universi-
ties. Much of its original force was gone before It had
crossed thechannel, and it had already become the shadow
316
lyGOOgIC
CLASSICISM AND THE UNIVERSITIES 317
of a shadow. It was welcomed and protected, but in its
original form it never shot out strong roots on British soil.
A few classical scholars whose names are almost forgotten
and would elsewhere have passed almost unnoticed, adorn
the scholarly annals of the age. But for several reasons,
its immediate influence was narrow and its direct effects
restricted. The most valuable results were to be indirect
and remote. The real revelation of the Ancient World
was later felt by those who, unable to construe a »mple
Latin sentence, yet saw before them the living figures of
antiquity.
The intellectual barrenness of the infteenth Century
in England was so immense as to make peculiarly welcome
any glimmer of a new culture. The chronicle of a move-
ment inevitably lifts its sponsors out of thdr true per-
spective. Patrons of letters like Duke Humphrey of
Gloucester, or Tiptoft, had undoubted appreaation of
the new ideas then stirring Italy. But as forerunners of
the Renaissance in England their importance hardly ex-
tended beyond their persons, and save for the donation
of a few volumes, remained without known influence.
The isolated example of scholars and patrons, picked out
from among the annals of the age, show only that a cer-
tain scholarly tradition, hanging on a thin spun thread,
had survived from earlier times. The knowledge of Greek
was probably never entirely lost in England, but the
atmosphere of learning had become rarefied. Even the
first band of Oxford scholars who went to Italy, suggest
little more than the reci^nition of new opportunities for
cultivation existing beyond the Alps.
A few English churchmen took interest in learning. Here
and there, a few Italian prelates or travellers find recq>-
tiveness for their ideas. The search for such examples
thin-spread through the disordered annals of the age,
offers the most convincing proof of how slightly their im-
portance touched the national life. The return of Grocyn
and Linacre from Italy has usually been taken as the
lyGOOgIC
3i8 TUDOR IDEALS
date for the introduction of the new learning into En^and,
but even this suggests misleading inferences, if an orderly
and progressive development of scholarship is meant
thereby. The reactions of English learning to the Renais-
sance are ill defined so soon as one seeks to pierce beyond
the more obvious facts. No such printers graced the
annals of the English press as the Aldines in Italy or the
Estiennes in France. Wynkyn de Worde and Ranald
Wolfe were Alsatians. Richard Pynson a Frenchman.
The printer of Elizabethan times was a jobber. John
Rastell, who was a lawyer, is almost the only example of
the cultivated man able to appreciate the bond between
letters and the printing press.
Learning failed in early attempts to attain the same
dignity in England as it had achieved on the Continent.
And the fault lies not a little with the lack of commanding
personalities. Its atmosphere especially during the early
years of the Sixteenth Century was limited. One points
to shining lights and quotes Erasmus' fulsome praise.
Erasmus then looking for patronage had been well re-
ceived in England and took pride in his discovery of British
scholars, but even he limits the number of the erudite
in London to five or six. English scholars, less gifted than
the Italian, attracted him by fewer pretensions and greater
purity of life. The monastic tradition still stamped an
ascetic touch which nearer familiarity with Rome effaced
in Italy. But learning never reached out to the same
full growth. Wolsey himself in spite of his munificent
scholastic foundarions took little real interest in the re-
vival of letters.
Scholarship remained stunted. Leland the antiquary
has described this indifference. In London he fiad been
able to discover only one collection of books and calls
shame on "so noble a city to have but one library and
that to be so slender."' At Norwich he had found
all the books from the monasteries turned over to the use
of grocers and candlemakers. His Protestantism made him
lyGOOgIC
CLASSICISM AND THE UNIVERSITIES 319
approve of the dissolution of the monasteries, but he re-
gretted the blow dealt to letters. "Why ought not their
libraries as well have remained to the commonwealth of
learning undestroyed ? " He denounced as a national dis-
grace that so many ancient chronicles and histories
should have been destroyed. In so doing "we have both
greatly dishonoured our nation and also showed ourselves
very wicked to our posterity."
A new doctrine had, however, been brought over and
its seeds scattered. Some of these never ripened at all
or wilted when separated from Continental inspiration.
Some gave great promise which later was little fulfilled.
Others changed their nature and developed into some-
thing different and far more important. Except for a
narrow group the new culture was tardy in establishing
itself on British soil, A few examples can always be ral-
lied to prove the contrary. But the broad result was
disappointing though not unexpected. The normal chan-
nel for the diffusion of new ideas was clewed from the
start.
• The intellectual triumph of medieval institutions had
been the University. It was the product of monasticism
applied to letters, and its conservative spirit due to early
traditions continued to be powerful, and made the nat-
ural centres of learning far from responsive to the new
ideas. The scholarly awakening of medieval Oxford de-
cayed with the suppression of Wycliffism. When dry
rot seizes hold of an academic institution none can be
so refractory to novelty, and humanism even with the
consecration of exalted patronage, was far from welcome
in the supposed homes of learning. It had to contend
there against the weight of an ancient established tradi-
tion and a force of inertia whose only enei^ was roused
by resistance. Such early struggles, centring around the
contest between so-calted Grecians and Trojans, ended
supposedly in the triumph of the former. The new move-
ment, powerfully supported by the crown, could not lightly
lyGOOgIC
320 TUDOR IDEALS
be brushed aside. But its victory was not conclusive
and its growth remained retarded and hemmed in.
The early luminaries of the new learning in England
were scholars concerned with the subject of their studies
more than with the direction of institutions. Though
some of them afterward lectured at Oxford they hardly
attained academic prominence, and the main interest of
their lives is to be found elsewhere. Success was incom-
plete and precarious, and preserved only a narrow foot-
hold. Erasmus' flattering comment on British scholar-
ship and his enthusiastic account of a banquet at Oxford
are one side of the picture. Even the existence of a
Tunstall and a Lilly did not mean that the new culture
rested on any broad foundation or met with any deep
interest or support.
The University could b^udge its welcome to human-
ism the more easily, because the latter was neither aca-
demic in its origins nor in its early associations, while
those of its sons who felt the call of the new learning did
not return to the fold. Even in Italy, the humanists had
been mostly individual scholars whose learning came from
self-study or from some one master and was not the prod-
uct of an institution. In the end it was inevitable that
the erudite should drift toward the anchorage of the
University to seek there academic shelter. But the orig-
inal welcome had been cold for many reasons, and not
least because of the atmosphere of conservatism imposed
by an earlier tradition. Many of the best scholars of the
time never went to the University. Later Scaliger re-
mained outside academic life until called to Leyden in
his old age.
The real spirit of both Oxford and Cambridge was in-
herited from the Middle Ages. Hence under Mary, even
the utility of Greek was once more doubted and the ef-
fort made to bring back scholasticism and let " Duns with
all the rabble of barbarous questionists"' dispossess
Plato and Cicero. Till very much later the old inherited
lyGOOgIC
CLASSICISM AND THE UNIVERSITIES 321
"quadrivials" were still studied though "now smaliy
regarded. "* The path to academic success lay through
routine pursuits and orthodox conservatism.
The glowing picture drawn by Ascham of the state of
Hellenic studies at Cambridge in 1542, is the best testi-
mony of how tardy and restricted had been the spread of
the new learning. Classical studies were stow to make
their way and their penetration in the end was at no
little sacrifice. When the Universities found these could
no longer be kept from their doors, instinctively they
devitalized their spirit. Instead of the Ancients being the
living inspiration they had proved to Erasmus and to
More, the classical tongues came to be regarded primarily
as suitable instruments for study. The writing of Latin
and Greek became goals for academic ingenuity and the
classical revelation, instead of spurring men on to fresh
enquiry, was distorted into making unwilling school-
boys compose bad Latin verses.
No great mind nor directing force lived to make the
University realize the place it might have filled in na-
tional life. Linacre found his field of interest in medi-
cine, Tunstall, Sir Thomas Smith, Roger Ascham and
Thomas Wilson, in the service of the state. Men of real
scholarly attainments sought occupation outside the Uni-
versity.
Both Cambridge and Oxford suffered during the Six-
teenth Century. In a sermon preached in 1550, Lever
alludes to their decay, to the dwindling number of scholars,
as well as to their wretched condition.* Larimer attrit><
uted this to the impoverishment of the yeomen class no
longer prosperous enough to give their sons a good edu-
carion.* The troubled progress of the Reformation had
as much to do with this, for the collies, unable to secu-
larize themselves were affected by the frequent changes.
Where there was no fixed goal nor high purpose, the drift
and interest lay in material welfare. Students who lin-
gered at the Universiries until they were forty, could
lyGOOgIC
322 TUDOR IDEALS
then live like "drone bees on the fat of the colleges, with-
holding better wits from the possession of their places. " •
In centres so self-contained, there was opportunity for
abuses to creep in. The rich foundations and attractive
surroundings drew a class who, already conservative by
instinct, found there confirmation for natural inclinations.
In such an atmosphere, the main interest gathered around
persons and places instead of ideas. Foundations given
to provide for the indigent, were diverted from their
original intention and masters themselves were not free
from the suspicion of bribery.' Leicester's enemies ac-
cused him of appointing at his pleasure the heads of
colleges and disposing of fellowships by favouritism and
corruption.'
Yet poor men's sons attended the collies. When
William Thomas described fhe University of Padua,
he contrasted it with Oxford and Cambrii%e where so
many of the students were base born. Examples like
Gabriel Harvey, the son of a rope maker, of Marlowe the
cobbler's son, and Spenser the watchmaker's, occur to
the memory. The choice of students was not drawn
from any caste and the sins of the system can hardly be
laid at the door of exclusiveness. But without fixed
method or intention, the colleges reflected the tone of a
certain class and freely admitted to preferment only those
who chose to conform to their own standards. Gabriel
Harvey relates that his master's dM^ee had at first been
refused him on the ground of his being fond of parodoxes
and given to defend strange doctrines even against Aris-
totle."
The University was a nursery for preachers and law-
yers, but scholarship remained on a lower level than on
the Continent. Joseph Scaliger felt frankly disappointed
with Cambridge and was struck by its atmosphere of lazi-
ness and narrowness. Giordano Bruno was unfavourably
impressed by Oxford, where he found a constellation of
pedantic ignorance and conceit coupled with rustic nide-
lyGOOglC
CLASSICISM AND THE UNIVERSITIES 323
ness.'" The academic polish of the age in its relation to
events, was mainly seen in the flood of classical orations,
plays, and verses, by which the scholastic instinct re-
duced humanism to a lifeless expression. The reaction
against the clumsy language of the schoolmen came in
the attention lavished on style and in Bacon's opinion
the first evil effect of the new learning was witnessed
when men studied words and not matter.
The disputations in the ancient tongues and the per-
formances of Latin and Greek comedies and tragedies,
given on the occasion of royal visits to the Universities,
show one aspect of humanism grafted upon academic tife.
Knowledge of the classics found an outlet in such effu-
sions as were written in Greek, Latin and even Hebrew,
to commemorate the death of a national hero like Sid-
ney." Yet the Renaissance meant something deeper
than this. Although the leaders of the University were
not aware of its revelation, many of the students knew
instinctively that there was more. Gabriel Harvey felt
satisfaction that scholars had become active rather than
contemplative philosophers and above everything else
wished to be something more than learned; even Aris-
totle came to be as little read as Duns Scotua." Young
University men, often half educated, like Marlowe, Greene
and Nash, forsook collegiate narrowness to seek fortune
or failure in London.
The academic shortcomings were reflected in the series
of half measures in education, which came from the in-
ability either to grasp or to impart the new doctrines.
Those gifted with rich scholarship remained a minority
whose influence was never a real gauge. The attempts
of a few scholars to introduce classical metres into Eng-
lish, were rather imitations of what Italians and French
had done, than a direct impelling wish to copy the an-
cients. Antiquity was never a living world to English-
men. It remained for all save a few, something exter-
nal, a style more than a doctrine, a lesson more than a
lyGOOgIC
324 TUDOR IDEALS
creed. Alone, the greatest mind of the age realized how
immense was the opportunity missed. Bacon in the
"Advancement of Learning" criticised the entire Uni-
versity idea in Europe, as fitting men only for the pro-
fessions and not for the pursuits of arts and sciences. He
saw the need for radical reform, beginning with an in-
crease in the teachers' stipends which were so low as not
to attract the best brains. In his judgment, the prac-
tice of teaching at all Universities required entire over-
hauling. Their traditions stilt dated from an age of
darkness and they took insufficient account of the real
conditions of life.
lyGOOgIC
XII. THE DIFFUSION OF EDUCATION
A DESIRE for education extending far beyond any group
or class was among the new ideas. Man discovering him-
self, instinctively felt the need to garner his mind. A half
unconscious secular drift had been weaning away instruc-
tion from the clergy even before the Reformation. The
hope of reformers in the Renaissance lay in making edu-
cation general for all and no longer confined to priests
and a few of gentle birth.
During the Fifteenth Century the instruction of the
lower classes had been utterly n^lected and that of the
upper if less so than is often supposed, had little in com-
mon with cultivation, A knowledge of legal terms and
processes was frequent, and of bad Latin and French not
unusual,* but there was slight interest taken in cultiva-
rion or any broad purpose beyond the practical necessi-
ties of life. The new age, however, recognized in educa-
tion the foundation of the State, with practical results
which were seen during the course of the century. En-
tire classes, previously illiterate or whose instruction had
been confined to the rudimentary notions they had
picked up from mentors almost as illiterate as themselves,
for the first time were given opportunity for instruction.
Education was at the basis of all proposed reforms and
the finer minds of the age looked forward to seeing the
riches of the Church used for this purpose. Henry VIII
entertained originally some such idea and Wolsey, to his
credit, endowed with ecclesiastical property both his col-
lege at Oxford and his Ipswich school. The early reformers
like Brynkiow, Crowley, and Simon Fish, all urged that
the land taken from religious houses should go to main-
tain common schools.
lyGOOgIC
336 TUDOR IDEALS
Sir William Forrest urged that all children be sent to
school from the age of four and afterward taught some
handicraft.* The hopes of the reformers in this direction
were over-ambitious. Seeking far-reaching innovations
they accomplished much less than they set out to do.
The ripened fruit of the Renaissance was the individ-
ual. The seed for collective measures of sociaj ameliora-
tion remained imperfect and half nebulous, amid
plans whose fruition could only come much later. Yet
the ideas of the early reformers persisted. Under EJiz-
abeth, Geoffrey Fenton wrote in favour of free schools,
suggesting provisions to endow these,' and Puritans like
Stubbes, advocated a vast extension of education with
the removal of all hindrances which had hitherto stood
in the way. In his opinion every parish was to have its
schoolmaster who was first to be examined for charac-
ter and knowledge.^ The wish for education lowered its
level to circles where it had before been unattainable.
Incompletely though the new ideals were realized, many
a village for the first time had its Hugh Evans teach
country lads the rudiments of Latin and do more for the
knowledge of antiquity than the classical scholarship of
a Walter Haddon.
One result of this diffusion lay in the increased sociaf
sympathy brought out through the contact of differ-
ent classes. Ideas of Renaissance education are apt to be
formed by the great exceptions. Surrey's description
of his own bringing up at Windsor is typical of only a
small circle. The same fault can be found with Elyot's
"Governour" intended solely for those of gentle birth,
and little applicable to the vast majority. But the castle
system of training was being superseded. Whether be-
cause of new ideas or new facilities, the sons of gentle-
men often studied side by side with the sons of fanners
and small tradesmen. This fact may have been among
the causes why there was never the same social rift in
England as on the Continent. Philip Sidney attended
lyGOOgIC
THE DIFFUSION OF EDUCATION 327
school at Shrewsbury. Even foreign boys were sent to
English public schools, and four youths who came from
Muscovy to study English and Latin, were distributed
between Eton and Winchester.^
A broadly humanistic purpose directed these schools.
Wolsey had outlined a programme for his foundations at
Ipswich. The basis of instruction was to be classical in
the sense that the great Latin poets and prose writers were
all to be read, but the underlying idea of education was
the development of the pupil's character. Beyond this
the training of youth was to be physical. Outside the
school walls, archery was long regarded as of real signif-
icance in the education of boys, both as a sport and as a
means of national defence.
A serious wish to improve educational methods was
characteristic of the Renaissance and although England
lagged behind other countries in breadth of scholarship,
it felt the same interest in instruction. The wave of the
new culture reached England more tardily than on the
Continent and after its initial force was already spent.
In its weakened form, already modified by the nationalism
of the countries through which it passed, it came to a
land where an instinctive national force had always pos-
sessed strong roots and where even the learned were re-
luctant to relinquish any part of their racial inheri-
tance. Hence the welcome given to the ancients was at
once affected by a point of view which found support in
the later continental example with its growing recogni-
tion of the value of the national tongue.
Ideas of this nature were not hostile to the humanist
spirit but only to the distorted outlook which previously
had allowed accomplished classical scholars to remain
unable to express their thoughts in the vulgar tongue.
The English idea was to make Latin a complementary
language, and to such subordination may be due the hap-
pier results of the national genius than in those con-
tinental states where a purer classicism prevailed. This
lyGOOgIC
328 TUDOR IDEALS
tendency was more instinctive than conscious, though
Ciceronianism never attained the popularity it enjoyed in
Italy, and was regarded by a mind like Philip Sidney
with indifference.
The greatest difficulty was to reconcile Latin with
Christian doctrine, but this was overcome in part by
orthodox instruction being given in the texts of the
Renaissance like the "Bucolics" of Mantuanus, or the
"Zodiac of Life" of Palingenius. In England Chris-
topher Ocland composed a heroic poem in Latin hexame-
ter known as the Anglorum Pralia and tried through
friends at court to have this adopted in the public
schools instead of pagan poets "from which the youth of
the realm doth rather receive infection in manners than
advancement in virtue."*
The classical current filtering through wider channels
fortunately became diluted. National and Puritan in-
fluences attacking from different sides transformed it
into something in nearer relation to the nation and more
comprehensible to the racial genius. This result was both
facilitated and hastened by other circumstances. The
immense novelty of the Sixteenth Century lay in no longer
restricting the possibility of education solely to those who
had studied at learned institutions. If the printing press
was to provide the mechanical device which made pos^-
ble this new diffusion, the human element came from the
multitude of those who with greater or less acquaintance
of the new learning then popularized erudition.
For the first time it was recognized that man could be-
come cultivated by reading. Far more important than
.the scholarship of grammarians was the popular form
such interest took. A new field open to all was brought
within the culture of the age mainly through translation.
The ancient poets and prose writers began to be read in
their English renderings. About the middle of the Six-
teenth Century it became possible to have a smattering of
the classics without the knowledge of one word of Latin.
lyGOOgIC
THE DIFFUSION OF EDUCATION 329
Collections of letters were made to provide models se-
lected from antiquity as well as from contemporary
humanists, who wrote in the ancient tongue.^
Such superficial acquaintance despite the pedant's
scorn, was in certain respects of more real importance
than a truer scholarship. Latin and Greek at their best
were indigestible elements when introduced into English
civilization, and the inherent difficulties of th«r study
deterred the majority from pursuing it. The wells of
English were hardly ever reached through the ancient
texts and oftener sullied by the inkhom. The real test
of perfect assimilation lies in departure from the original.
An accurate imitation remains always faulty because too
lifeless to exert permanent influence. The Renaissance
only attained full meaning in England, when it b^an
to affect those, who in every station, and with every de-
gree of comprehension, were responsive to the new ideas.
The subtler processes by which such changes came
about are necessarily obscure. It is easy to count schools
and enumerate editions of books, but these were only the
portals for the new ferment. The reason why the latter
became connected with antiquity was that above the
pedantry of the learned, men were able to feel for the first
time in a thousand years, that their instinctive and con-
scious aspirations, their ideals and ambitions, could trace
their origin to the writings of classical times, and strike
out fresh roots from imitative b^nnings. The Ejig-
lish popularity of Ovid is explicable in this way. The
translator Golding speaks of himself as a student who
travelled "to enrich our tongue with knowledge hereto-
fore not common to our vulgar speech," and apologized
for its paganism by declaring that it was written before
the knowledge of the true God, and that the mythological
divinities were only to be regarded as symbols.
The poets of the age took it for granted that th«r read-
ers were familiar with the machinery of ancient mythd-
ogy. Village schoolmasters and players brought to wide
lyGOOgIC
330 TUDOR IDEALS
circles a superficial knowledge which passed out of books
into life. Those ignorant of the rudiments of Latin
could read in translations about ancient philosophers
and poets, or anecdotes of Greek Sophists, and Roman
Senators. The gods of Olympus were then living to far
wider circles than a few scholars. A certain familiarity
with classicism derived from various channels was ele-
mental and almost universal throughout England and
shows not the least important side of the new learning.
An odd jumble borrowed out of ancient history and my-
thology was everywhere introduced into popular litera-
ture. In the Induction to the "Spanish Tragedy" the
prowling ghost of Andrea talks with Minos and Rhada-
manthus!
Englishmen in the Sixteenth Century felt an awakened
craving for sensuous beauty. They looked around to
find a dress for such instincts which could not be gratilied
in the dull pages of their own past literature. The inquis-
itive mind of the age, avid for novelty and seeking to
mould the expression of imaginative beauty, found means
to gratify this taste in antiquity. The paganism of a
university educated Marlowe, or the paganism of a gram-
mar school educated Shakespeare, were expressions of
this time. Neither was antique in any scholarly sense.
Both were in far too intimate a relation to the age to
confine their genius within any rigid imitation. From
antiquity both borrowed only a subject-matter and a
dress still new in England and enveloped this with their
own luxurious trappings. The gorgeousness which in
Italy adorned canvas and brocade was moulded by them
into words. Leander and Adonis offered occasion for the
sensuous craving of an era which borrowed foreign names
and framework for a native product. In such a sense the
lesson of antiquity became real by its own deficiencies.
Learning ran past the Universities to lodge itself in those
who with "small Latin and less Greek" breathed the
revelation of the ancient world.
lyGOOgIC
THE DIFFUSION OF EDUCATION 331
Classicism in England left the study to pass into Hfe.
A great movement is rarely of immediate development.
More often its vitality seems stunted or exposed to de-
feat and reaction. The reason is, that new ideas are able
at first to bring only a shallow impact on the country and
the purer their form the more restricted remains their
influence. To achieve victory they have to adjust them-
selves to the spirit of the land itself in evolution, and
thereby modify their own nature. As this is largely an
unconscious process it takes time for accomplishment.
The great forces which have stirred the world have never
gone ahead unchecked but always have waited for victory.
In its original wave the Renaissance merely attempted
to copy the ancient world. With the growth of nation-
ality in action as in thought, the desire to vie with Greece
and Rome arose. Writing in the middle of the century,
William Thomas alluded to the literary output of Italy,
and remarked that if it lasted another ten years it would
rival that of antiquity. Bacon with all his classical train-
ing was against the dead hand of the past. Revering
antiquity he deplored the influence it exercised in pre-
serving error. The real triumph of the classical spirit
came when men felt that they were no longer kept in its
thrall.
lyGOOgIC
Xin. THE DISCOVERY OF LETTERS
English letters in the Sixteenth Century sprang out of a
thin soil. Cultivation was an exotic, and like all plants
of foreign origin, required special treatment. Patronage
became a vital prop for learning. A rude and in many
respects primitive community, still largely illiterate, oiFers
a condition tittle favourable for interest in polite letters.
The struggling efforts of the latter, instinctively seeking a
foothold, attach themselves to the mighty and require a
support which brings its own penalty. Until literature
is able to strike out for itself it tends to fawn on the great
by making appeal to them. Under such conditions it
can rarely attain genius. Cultivation, refinement, learn-
ing, industry, and critical appreciation, are at best secon-
dary qualities which arise out of narrow groups and do
not lead to any broad human interest until they become
leavened by new ingredients.
The artiticial protection of patronage was a necessary
stage in the process of early development. A country
self-contained and as insular in a narrow sense as was
England in the Fifteenth Century, tends, if left to itself,
to lapse into a lowering of standards which makes it drift
toward barbarism. The correctives to such tendencies
come through the assimilation of extraneous elements.
Remote as they may seem to the national genius, the
tests of their value cannot be gauged by any narrow meas-
ure. The law of intellectual prepress is contained in the
elements of contact which permit an alien inspiration to
adjust itself into a different national groove.
The influence of learning and of poetry which then
reached England was fordgn and mainly Italian. It re-
quired protection to cast its anchor and this it could only
lyGOOgIC
THE DISCOVERY OF LETTERS 333
find among the great. The literary origins of the Renais-
sance sprang from no popular roots, for the pure imitation
of antiquity could by its nature never make a popular
appeal.
The brit^e which attached England to the Renais-
sance was in the beginning narrow and insecure, yet its
importance proved enormous for across it passed the in-
fluences which were to civilize the country. Patronage
and court favour, if on a less generous scale in England
than on the Continent, provided an encouragement which
hastened the introduction of the new ideas and allowed
the nation thereby to anticipate its own evolution.
With the diffusion of printing and the birth of a read-
ing public, there came an intermediary stage in the dis-
covery of letters. The scholar or poet, no longer obliged
to rely exclusively on the enlightenment or vanity of a
patron, could yet not afford to disregard him. The growth
of circulation reduced the call on private generosity. No
book appeared without some fulsome dedication to an
exalted personage though the three pounds which Peele
received for dedicating his "Honour of the Garter" to
Lord Northumberland, seem barely enough to corrupt
his judgment, while the many dedications to Philip Sid-
ney, were doubtless more honorific than remunerative.
As a rule, the writers hardly dared to stand alone before
the world but required support. And white ideally the
poet could praise the poet's state and feel proudly con-
scious of the art which raised his mind "above the starry
sky" in practice he still wrote only for a small public and
remained largely dependent on the bounty of a few pa-
trons. Contemporaries could compare Spenser to Theoc-
ritus, Virgil and Petrarch, but practically the latter had
only a small court circle to rely on for his public, and his
"Fterie Queene" took years to run into a second edition.
The greatest period of English letters was not able to
stand alone but required extraneous devices. The effusive
flattery which disturbs the modern mind by its extrava-
lyGOOglC
334 TUDOR IDEALS
gance, becomes more comprehensible when one realizes
the abject poverty of those who sought to make a living
by their pen. Henslowe's Diary states that he paid no
dramatist more than eleven pounds for a single play until
after 1613, when the commercial value of dramatic writ-
ing was raised. The beginnings of independence in letters
were, however, as unsavoury as tannings often are. In
Italy Aretines' blackmailing instincts had discovered the
pecuniary possibilities of the pen. His English imitators
like Greene and Nash first found in literature the means
to eke out a questionable livelihood and doubtless sold
their pen with profit during the Martin Marprelate con-
troversy. These ancestors of Grub Street were to prove
that a new reading public had been bom whose opinion
was worth capturing.
The tendency of letters in a period of conscious activity
is to claim representative functions. In this sense medi-
ocrity provides the safer test, for the path of genius is not
that of the multitude. It is easy to pick out among the
Elizabethan dramatists certain characteristics of force and
energy which to our modern mind make them the literary
equivalent of Drake and Hawkins, but it would be as
easy to construct from them still another world which
bears no relation to the England of that day. The con-
nection between life and letters is one where ready-made
theories easily plunge into pitfalls.
Yet letters in the Sixteenth Century expressed for the
first time something more than didacticism. The discov-
ery greater than any other, was the feeling of life in all
its divers forms. The older idea of separate compart-
ments of existence was receding before the new reve-
lation. Literature embraced what would before have
been regarded as its negation. Fresh interest was felt for
every manifestation of the human intelligence. The
younger Scaliger visiting England studied the old ballads
with keen appreciation; Sidney relates how thdr recital
moved him to tears. England achieved maturity in the
lyGOOgIC
THE DISCOVERY OF LETTERS 335
expressive power of literature. This ran parallel with
the national evolution which it reflected. Not in art, not
in music, but in poetry English genius discovered the world
and expressed in words its own aspirations.
Oddly enough literary personality in England remained
undeveloped. While in Italy men of letters were con-
spicuous, English writers in spite of talent as high were
less impressive. Marlowe might have become a great
figure. But Shakespeare whose genius created so many
characters, as a man survives mainly as a blank, except
for the record of a few commonplace stage activities and
the trivial doings of a petty squire wrangling with his
neighbours. No paradox could be stranger than the
antithesis between his mind's creations conquering the
world of imagination and the pettiness of his personal
interests. Other men of letters who left their mark on
the age like Wyatt, or later Sidney, did so because of
distinction elsewhere. Spenser as a man was more a
disappointed small official than a poet. Not till Ben
Jonson did the author take his place m the life of the age.
lyGOOgIC
XIV. THE CULTIVATION OF LIFE
Sir Thomas Elyot had lamented the slight esteem in
which letters were held in England. Years later Bacon
was to express the same idea. The sneers aroused by cul-
tivation must have been frequent if such apolt^es oiFer
any indication. In contrast to this, were the circum-
stances then continually arising which required the abil-
ities of the soldier, the diplomat, the administrator, the
navigator, and the colonist. The age with all its theo-
retical didacticism, and new programmes of education
had yet not organized the rudiments of any public service,
and the State found itself obliged to call in men for high
position in a haphazard manner. This accounts for the
multiple activities of the same individual, who crossed with
facility from one field to the other. While it does not
explain genius, it assists in understanding the humanistic
preparation which made this possible and fitted the finer
minds for their tasks. The activities of man were the re-
sult of a classical and not of a technical education.
Owing to this the ideal of letters and of action was better
understood in the Sixteenth Century than in later ages.
Men were not yet encumbered by the weight of an estab-
lished career \yith its slow gradations toward success.
Such a spirit as this enabled Sir Christopher Hatton who
at the timeof his appointment possessed little orno knowl-
edge of the law, to fill with dignity the Lord Chancellorship.
Cultivation, as a rule, stopped short with the knowl-
edge of antiquity/ Beyond that education came from an
extraordinary diversity of events. The human pulse was
beating quickly and ima^nation was easily fired. In
every circle of life men gazed on a broader oudook, and
felt their capacity in a way never before realized.
Circumstances of different order contributed to create
lyGOOgIC
THE CULTIVATION OF LIFE 337
a situation where letters led to action. Learning and
arms were always the twin goals of the Renaissance in-
herited as ideals from antiquity. Their union was realized,
conspicuously, in the brilliant talents of Raleigh and Sid-
ney, but also in those minor lights who like Gascolgne
and Churchyard achieved the twin Ideal of adventure
and letters, yet felt prouder of their deeds than of their
verse.
In an age so vigorous as the Sixteenth Century, poetry
was regarded more as an accomplishment than as an end
in itself. The fact that letters formed part of life was to
be a stride toward the .embellishment of personality. Life
offered a consistent ideal not without elevation, for the
welfare of the state became its ultimate reason.
The sense of nationality which asserted itself for the
first time was built up by this association. The classical
training in men made them conscious of what had before
been instinctive and shaped an ideal of patriotism, nour-
ished by letters and furthered by deeds. Dyer, Essex,
Oxford were all men of action, and Fulke Greville could
write of his friend Sidney: "His end was not in writing
even while he wrote."
Letters kept a more intimate relation to the man of
action than is possible in an era of greater specialization,
Marlowe regarded eloquence as the instrument by which
the imagination should be freed. Theridamas acknowl-
edges to Tamburlaine that he is "won with thy words."
In "Julius Cssar" the mob sways in response to elo-
quence.
The same reasons which had favoured the enlargement
of kingly power contributed to the rounding of the individ-
ual. The greatness of the age was brought out by the
blending of nationalism and of cosmopiolitanism. Pride in
England yet familiarity and sympathy with all the world.
The prentices who thronged the Globe were familiar with
the Roman imperialism of Anthony and the Venetian im-
perialism of Othello. Nothing human was strange to
lyGOOgIC
338 TUDOR IDEALS
them. No longer an audience of courtiers but the popu-
lace of London responded to this revelation.
Cultivation graced the lives of people removed from the
scholar's study. In a double sense the effect of the Ren-
aissance had been to secularize learning. It took it
out of its pedagogic surroundings, and In^ught it into
many a home which had before been barren of light.
Henceforth, the taste for letters must be followed through
far wider channels. A race of men steeped in the human-
istic education begin to adorn the annals of English his-
tory. One is able to trace their succession through Sir
John Cheke, Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Thomas Wilson, As-
cham, Buckhurst and Bacon. Though Cheke and ^^lson
were classical scholars of high attainment these men were
of the generation of Renaissance statesmen who brought
to the handling of public affairs a well-governed mind>
free from academic seclusion. Letters formed part of the
individual but they were far from being the soul of the
individual. The sterile half century which elapsed before
the brilliant promise of the courtly makers was fufilUed,
allowed for evolution in the cultivation of personality.
The humanistic wave spread in ripples through the
nation. What had once been singular and remarkable
became of common achievement. A cert«n level of cul-
ture percolated through the entire people. From the
Ciceronian Latin at court to the hog Latin of the village
school few there were so dense as to ignore its rudiments.
One is too prone to care only for the brilliancy of attain-
ment and pay scant notice to the silent years of germina-
tion. The greater part of the Sixteenth Century in Eng-
land intellectually speaking was almost barren. Such
sterility is often attributed to the ambiguities surround-
ing the national creed and the succession to the throne>
reacting on the popular imagination. It was more likely
caused by the lack of any foundation for the expresuon
of the new ideas. As soon as these had been understood
by levels where they were previously unknown, the har-
lyGOOglC
THE CULTIVATION OF LIFE 339
vest was reaped with ail the bounty of virgin soil just
planted. Poetry emei^ed from its early confinement
at court to be welcomed in a wider sphere. Literature
became an occupation, and the drama a road to fame.
Writing, which had been didatic, became a career. An
appreciation of letters grew general. Modern diarists
then appeared who were men about town, inconspicuous,
living on the outskirts of the great world, but with keen
humour, literary sense and a fondness for life. Harring-
ton was one of a cultivated and even carpingcircle of crit-
ics whose existence would have been impossible forty
years earlier. Sir William CornwalHs is another example
of the cultivated personality of his time, a dilettante with
literary tastes, aiming to follow Montaigne. With intel-
lectual curiosity, a wide culture and power of analysis,
he has the modern spirit. The gap of centuries had been
filled. Our pedigree of cultivation dates from such men
far more than from higher genius.
Although no sudden break with the past explains the
new atmosphere, its transformarion was no less complete.
England could not boast of epistolary collections such as
Italy or even France produced. No Bembo, no Tasso in
England thought of collecting his letters for posterity, but
certain of Sidney's deserve a high place if only for the
manliness they breathe.
The ability to write letters became part of an educa-
tion. The well rounded personality long known in Italy
entered henceforth into English life. Such was Sir Henry
Wotton. His services to the state as a diplomat were val-
uable. His poetic talent was more than that of a mere
dilettante. As a letter writer he showed wit which marks
the advance into modernity. He was interested in the
arts. His achievement is far from great, but his cultiva-
tion was considerable. He is the modern man, fond of the
pleasures of life, the round of country visits, of sport, and
of social intercourse.
With the cultivation of life came aresponse between writ-
lyGOOglC
340 TUDOR IDEALS
ers and readers such as had before hardly existed. Others
than noblemen became patrons of letters. The discovery
of the world marked the discovery of its literature. Spen-
ser could admire the imaginative talent of the Irish bards
though he deplored their making heroes of thieves. Sid-
ney, seeking literary example in his "Apology," no longer
restrains his choice to antiquity but comments on the re-
spect shown for poets in Turkey and among unlettered
Indians. Puttenham with wide interest in letters singles
out the "American, Perusine and the very Cannibal"
who appreciate poetry. Danid searching the globe to
find examples to prove the superiority of melody over
quantity, cites Turks, Slavonians, and Arabs, and men-
tions China as the example of a land not barbarous where
anapests and trochees were unknown. The world had
been discovered not only for commerce and for power, but
for letters.
The modern conception of English life dates from EUiz-
abeth. The real break with the medieval past had been
effected less by the Wars of the Roses and the accession
of the Tudors, than during the last half of the Sixteenth
Century when the harvest was ripening in silence. This
was in obedience to a frequent if usually unobserved his-
toric law. The seeds of a great movement are sown nearly
always in ground imperfectly prepared. The movement
very quickly attains unexpected success because of the
commanding position of its apostles. But if conditions
are not ripe, an apparent reaction sets in which well-nigh
effaces it. On the surface few traces are left, but below
the ground the roots once planted spread in silence and
years later appear again unexpectedly. It was thus with
the influence of the Renaissance in England. It came as
a fruit of foreign origin which grew only in a fertile seal.
Then it disappeared and its traces seemed to vanish, till
phoenix like, it rose once more above the surface with
the genius of poets sprung from the people and the vast
leaven of culture in the Ufe of the nation.
lyGOOgIC
NOTES
lyGOOgIC
lyGOOgIC
NOTES
In this table are included only the principal refer-
ences. The eariy printed books mentioned are all to
be found in the British Museum. The manuscript
diary of the French Ambassador de Maisse is in the
library of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Paris.
For the general history of the age in England the
writer refers to the books of Professors Gairdner,
Busch, Brewer, Fisher, Sir Sidney Lee and especially
Prof. A. F. Pollard, to mention only the principal his-
torians of the period from whose labours he has bene-
fited. He wishes further to refer with gratitude to the
valuable suggestions he has obtained from Dr. Burck-
hardt's "Civilization of the Italian Renaissance."
PART r
Ch AFTER I
' Ilal. Rel. 1500 Camden Soc., p. 34.
Reprinted in Tudor Tracts, Edit, by A. F. Pollard, p. 30.
•Camden, Hist. Edit. 1635, P- 74-
• Reprinted in the Appendix of the Chron. of Q. Jane, Camden Soc., pp. 86* j^.
' Admonition to the Nobility and People uf England, 15B8, pp. 4, if.
• Leicester's Commonwealth, pp. 124, jq.
' Ihid, p. 34.
>A Conference about the Next Sjccession, N. D., p. 196.
'Marillacp. an.
* Ihid, p. iJi.
' Sir T. Smith, p. S9-
< Hentiner, p. 49.
'Cavendish, (Kelmsco
' Starkey, Dialogue, p.
•Memoirs, p. 331.
lyGOOgIC
344 NOTES
"31 Henry Vlll.ch. 8.
" Reprinted in Somers Tracts, III, ser. I, p. 90.
" Cognct, Political Discourses, p. 63; Primaudaye, French Academy, p. 64S.
" Belloy, Jpol. pro. Regt, Cap. 10.
» Vidi Th. Payncll. Dedication to Henry VIII of his traniL of Connan-
linus Felicius Durantinus, Conspiracy of Catiline.
" Declaration of the end of Traitort. Sig B, 4.
" Sermons, 1552, i. 88.
" Stubbes, Anat. of Abuses, II, pp. [7, 115.
" Cooper, Admonitions, p. 156.
' Ital. Rd., pp. 46, iq.
> CI. Dunbar, Works, pp. 136, I99, 20J.
' Cavendish, p. 33.
' The Receiving of the Queen's Majesty into her City of Norwich, London,
N. D.
« yide Churchyard, The Queen's Entertainment.
'Latimer, Sixth Sermon, 1549, p. 181.
' Brynklow.p. 10.
' Naunion, r rag. Reg., p. :o.
' Somers Tracts, Edit. 1748, IV, no.
"DeMaisse, Ms. MinisteteAff.Eitang. Paris, 1598,/. ji8V.
" Harrington, Nug, Ant. 1, 67.
" Camden, p. 391.
" Naunton, p. 46.
" Harrington, I, 67.
"DeMaTsse,/. III.
" Leicester's Correspondence, Camden Soc., p. 108.
" Ibid., p. 279.
" Ibid., p. 243.
i» Ibid, p. I
'"Ibid., pp. 175, 240.
" Letters of Elii., Cam. Sor., p. 17.
" Do Maissc, /. 239, 243, iss. '?■ SiSb-
Ven. Cal. H, No. 918.
'Macillac, pp. 194,371.
> Bacon, Works, Edit. London, 1740, 1, 607; 11, 418, 441.
* Camden, p. 536.
' Spenser, Colm Clout. I, 69, sq.
« Surrey, Worts, p. LXI.
' Chron. Henry VIII, Edit. Hume, p. 60.
lyGOOgIC
• Camden, p. sj*.
' Life and Times of Hatton, p. 40.
"' In >ddicion to Cascigllone and Guazzo, the treatises of Guevata, Oso
Sturmius should be read.
" Art of Eng. Poct., II, Ch. 15.
" Letter to Sidney, 14, Nov., 1579.
" R. Greene, Quip for an Upstart Courtier.
" Life of Sidney, p. 69,
>• Mother Hubbard's Tale, ;
'* Lite and 1 imes ot rlatton, pp. no, Z14,
" Copybook, p. 169.
" Vide Dunbar, Works U, 199, 206; Lyndsay, "Papyngo" and "CompUynt
10 (he King," cf. also Francis Tnynne and Barnfield.
i> Mother Hubbard's Tale, II. 896, sq.
Cbafter VI
' Epist., Edit. Nichols, 1, 411, iq.
> W. Thomas. 5ee Ellis OHg. Lett., id Ser. II, 189, sq.
' Marillac, p. 349.
* riiir Prim aud aye, French Acad., p. 466;CogDet,p. 8]; Blundevil^CouDidst
157°. Sig. 3 "•
' Utopia, p, 62.
' Sixth Sermon, iS49i P- '81.
' Guevara, Golden Book, Ch. 17.
'Brewer. Henry VIII, 1.66.
' Busch, En^and under the Tudors. pp. 133, iq.
'•Marillac, p. 118.
" Bacon, I, 711. iq.
" " Rede Me and be not Wroth," p. 59.
"Tree of Commonwealth, p. 19.
" The Ploughers, p. 18; Ascham, Scholemaster, p. 51.
'' Btundevile, Of Counsel, Sig D2, £4 v.
" Hart. Misc. VII, 565.
" Vidt Grimaldus Goslicius; The Counsellor.
" Bacon, Works, I, 606.
Chapter VII
' Comines, I!, 4, iq.
> Btiwer, II, 38, iq.
'Leic, Corr.p. 197.
•Ven. Cal. Ill, No-^o.
' Slow, Survey. Edit. Dent, p. 161.
* Friedmann, Anne Boleyn, t, 99.
'Roper, p. S3.
Marillac, pp. 195, 206.
' Crowley.fiuj,
'• Burnet Edit
"Chron. Hem,
" Leic. Commonwealth, pp. 86, 1
" De Maisse, Ms. Cit.,/. 13.
" Castelnau, p. 116.
"Nug. Ant. I, 118, /}.
"Leic.Corr., p. 113.
"Hist., p. iiB.
lyGOOgIC
346 NOTES
" Walsingham to Sir T. Smith, 14 Sept. 71 Digges Compleit Ambattador,
p. 28*.
"Brewer, 1,*03;
» Poems, Aid. Edit., p. 191.
" Lit. Rem. Edw. VI, I, p. CXXVIII.
" Life of Hatton, pp. no, 214.
•• Camden, p. 115-
' Comities, II, 64.
*Leic. Corr., p. 173
' French Acad., p. 417.
• Utopia, p. 137.
' Languet, Apd. for Girisdan Soldiers, Tranil. by H. P., London, 1588.
» Tragedy of the Cardinal, IL 240, sq.
* The Nobles, Sig. Di. mr.
"See Fomeron, Phil. 11, Vol. Ill, p. 218.
" Chamberlain Letters, ) Feb. 1600.
" Reprinted in Somcr's Tracts, Ulrd Series, I, p. no.
Wabingham (o Leicester, 8 Oct., 72 Digges Compleat Ambassador, p. :
"Wals. to Leic, T. Smith, 2 Sept., 72 Digges, p. 239.
"Wals. to Council, 24 Sept. 71; Digges, p. 257.
'* Letter to Wals,, 19 Sept. 72; Diggei, p. 2;o.
" Council to Will., 9 Sept. 72; Digges, pp. 246, iq.
" Digues, p. 249.
"Justification of Eliz. {Cam. Sue), p. 119.
" I'Estoile, Journal, III, 24, sq.
"Wals. to Burleigh, i March, 1591; Digges, p. 173.
" Letters of Eliz. to James Vi, Cam, Soc. 1849, pp. 46, jf.
" Essay, 46.
Chapteii IX
:t Succession, N. D.
Effect Commonwealth, Londoti, 1600.
" Camden, p. $6i.
Chaftek X
Ital. Rel., p. 36.
' Roper, p. 16,
' Merrrman, Cromnell, I, 98.
* Marillac, p. 371.
lyGOOgIC
NOTES 347
' d'Ewes, Journal, Edit. 1693, p. 66.
' Ibid,, pp. i]6, sq,
' Noailles, Ambassades, III, 148.
• Arber, Reprint of Reglsier of the Stacioners' Company, I, XXIX.
'Latimei, Edit. Arbcr, ist Seim,, p. 231 and Seven Sermons, 1552,/. i;b.
"• Uic. Coram., pp. 196, jj.
" Blast of the Tempest, pp. }2, 50.
" An ad vetti semen t touchmg the controversies of the Church of England.
" The title of the book was "The Gulph Wherein England will be Swallowed
by the French Marriage," 1581.
' Roper, pp. 2, sq,
' Spenser, Globe Edit., Present State of Ireland, p. 620.
* Camden, p. 491.
• Sir Wm, Comwillis, Disc, on Seneca, Sig., P. 3, v, jq.
' Lit. Rem. II, p. 526.
'Works, p. ly
iUe. Life, p. 53-
A Conference, pp. iB, 61.
Edw. II, I, IV, 287. J?.
PART II
Chapter III
1 Castelniu, p. 60.
' Somer's, Tracts; id Collect. I, p. 67.
* Cavendish, p. 149.
* A Conference Pt. II, pp. 215, jj.
* Frag. Reg., pp. 47, 66.
lyorki Edit. Oldys, VIII. p. 111.
'MassacreofParis, 11,19.
* Battle of Alcazar, II, II, 69, /j.
Euphues and his England, p. 165.
Chapter IV
' Cf. B. de Logue, Discourses of War, Transl. by T. Eliot, 1591, pp. S9i JJ.
ee also La Primaudaye, p. jn; Biyskett, pp. 70, iq.
' Chamberlain Letters, pp. 54, 157.
* Leic. Comm., p. 56.
' Ibid,, p. 36.
Chapter V
'Sermons,/. 1 10 V. Edit. 1571.
' Dialogue bet. Experience and a Courtier, 11. 1069, jq.
' Lee, Shakespeare, p. 8.
' fiojV in Inglaterra, quoted by Fomeron, Phil. II, I, 154.
•Stubbes, I, 7
es. I, 73.
ile, VI^ Aos,
' Harrison's England, I, 267, iq. 374.
' Brantome, VII, ^j.
•N. Breton Wit's Trenchman, 1597.
'°Itincr, in Shakespeare's Europe, Edit. 19031 p. 475.
lyGOOgIC
348 NOTES
Chapter VI
' See Poggio, Letter, 19 Oct,, 1410.
* Leic. Comm., p. 104.
* First Sermon, pp. 41, fq.
* Simon Fish, p. 4.
' Fid* Wm. Soy, Rede me, p. 61.
* Vox Populi Vox Dei. Skelton's Works, Vol. II, pp. 369, jq. (Pteudo
Skeltonian.)
' fidt "PlMsant Poesye of Princelie Practite," II. 510,^0.
* Vol Populi, Skelton, Vol II, p. 371.
'Litimer, Sermons, Ed. Ijgi,/. 1*3.
"Lever, p. 77, S. Fish, p. 52. -
" Dialog., pp. gs, jg.
" Envoy to " Horse, Goose and Sheep," edit, by Futnivall, p. 40, 0. 598, jj.
" Crowley, pp. 87, sq.
" Lit. Rem., pp. 481, sq.
" Anat. of AbuE. H, 33, iq.
" Toiophilus, p. 153.
" John Bate, Dialogue bet. a Christian and an athdst, 1589, p. t6o.
Cmapteb VII
' Order of Chivalry, Edit. F. S. Ellis, p. 99.
* W. Patten, see Pollard's Tudor Tracts, pp. 102, to6.
' Dialogue, p. 8i.
' Paslime of Pleasure, p. 20.
* Works. Ill, 138.
' Sat. of the Three Estates, 11. 4370, iq.
'/iiti.,1. 3820.
'Orpheus and Eurydice.
* The Praise of the Age, Edit. T. Schippcr, Vienna, 1901.
" Passion of Christ.
Chapter VllI
' Memoirs, I, 195.
' L, Humphrey, Sig. I, 5, iq.
'Camden, p. in.
* Ibid., p. 200.
' Busch, p. 1B3.
' Scarkey, Dial., pp. 109, /a.
'Observations in a Libel, Works I, Jio.
' Fide Book of St. Albans, pp. 93, iq.; G. Markham, Gentl. Acad., p. 94, t.
' Peacham, pp. 14, iq.
'" Feme, pp. 90, sq,
" Sir Thomas Smith, Commonwealth, pp. 37, iq.
" Segar, p. 130; Feme, pp. 44, jo, sq.
" Present State of Ireland, p. 672.
"Segar, p. 113.
" Starkcy, pp. 1B9, jg,
" Latimer, The Ploughers, p. 28.
" Scholemascer, p. 68.
" Steel Glas, p. 62.
"Copley Letters, p. 18.
" Letters, p. 20.
lyGOOgIC
Ch AFTER IX
'This passage is cited by John BossewdMn the ff'nris of Armory, Load., 1571,
f. 14, v., jg.
' Rom. of the Rose, Kelmscolt Edit., p. 165.
Cf. G. Douglat, Prologue 10 IF Book 0} firiii, Ed. Small; Palate of Honour,
1, p. 75; Hcnryson, Orpluiu and Euridyii.
'TceeofComm.. p. 19.
' For Italian influences in the theory of arittocracy, »ee wnKr'i Ital. Ren. in
Eng., pp. 61, sq.
'Osorius, Eng. Transl.tflrf^,/. 3/ v., 16 v./. 20.
' Govemour, 11, p. li6.
» Works 1,190.
•sig. avir
"Works, p. 01.
" Vidf, Sehotemaiier, pp. ji, sq.
"Counsels, 1570, Sig., p. i.
" Cf. Fern^ First Fruit*,/. 36 v.
" Elook of St. Albans, pp. 42, sq.; Juliana Bemeri, /. 49b., sq. Cf al»o Leigh>
"Accedens of Armory,"/- ^ *■ 'i-
"Christian Policy, p. ]i].
"Works of Armory, 1571,/. 18.
" R. Barret, The Theorike and Practike of Modern Wars, p. ij.
" Honor, Military and Civil, p. 1
Baldwin, A Treatise of Moral Philosophy,/. 06, iq.; Bryskett, p. 5.
Epis. Dedicatory,/. 6 v. in Princess Eliiabttfi, a Godly Meditation,
a. Tears of the Muses, II. 80, sq.
" Eiiphues. pp. 87, 190.
" Euphues and his Ephtzbus, p. 135.
Ch AFTER X
I Brewer, I, p. 64.
' Scholemaster, p. 61.
' Peacham, Comp. Gent., p. 31, and Preface.
* Leicester 10 Walsingham, lo April, 1586, Leic. Cotr., p. 318.
•Fr»g. Reg,, p. IS.
* f'idf. Institution of a Gentleman, 1
' ~ .of Children. Sig. E
I I, 17Z, sq.; Ascham;
n Elizabeth Acad., p
Ch AFTER Xt
' See Sir H. Knyvett, Defence of the Realm, iS96i Slarkey, pp. 186, ja.
> FiJf Marillac. p. 88.
' Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 16.
' Monluc, Commcntaires. I, 321.
' f'idt T. Churchyard, Reprinted in Tudor Tracts, p. 317.
* fidt J. Fortescue in Shak. Eng. I, 126, to whom the writer is imJebled for
nany of (he facts in (his chapter.
' Leic. Corr., p. 391.
* Sir T. Smythe. Discourses, Proem.
' Pres. State of Ireland, p. 661.
"•Corr, p. 416.
lyGOOgIC
3 so NOTES
" Walsingham (o Sir T. Smith, II, J>n., 15711 DiggOi p. 307. Sec aba
Fenton, Letters, p. 429.
"Hist., p. 67.
" Chamberlain, Letters, 17 May, 1602.
" Honor, Military and Civil, p. 117.
" D. Diss's, Paradoxes, pp. 91S, IC9.
" Frag. Reg,, p. 329,
" Life and Times <^ Hatton, App. XXXVII.
*• Letter, ij Feb., 1578.
PART in
Chapter I
' Dial., p. 9, see also, p. 51.
' Utopia, p. 72.
' yide J. Proctor's account of Wyatt'f Rebdlitm, ISSS Tudor Tram,
pp. 2J2, iq.
' Sir J. Smythe, Discourses, Proem.
'Starkey, p. 43.
Coinwallis, Essay, Sig. K 7, >ers. 8.
' Anatomiiing, Somets Tracts, IV, 389, if.
Chapter II
' Cavendish, p. 274.
*W. Baldwin; in Mirror Tor Magiittates, U, 20].
• Works, p. 8.
'Utopia, pp. Ill, jj.,- see pp.90,/;.
• yidt Discourse of the Commonweal, pp. 58, sg.
• Interlude of Gentyloess and Nobylyte, circa, 1(35, pp. 25, Jo.
' Dt Im>., Trans, by T. Langlcy, /. XXIX.
• fide Seven Sermons, 1552,/. 6,/. 10, etc.
• Strype, Mem. of Cranmer, I, 127.
'" Pollard, England under Somcnet, p. 223.
" Humphrey, Sig. 2 VII, )q.
" Fide Gwillim, Display of Heraldrte.
" Siubbes, Anat. of Ab. 1, 29, 43.
" Life and Times of Hatton, pp. 227.
" Fulke Greviile, p. 24, ij.
" Poem on Cromwell; Mirror for Magistrates, II, $06, fq.
Chaiter III
Paston Letters, I, 110.
» Jbid., I, 17s.
' Prolosue 10 his Cato, 1483.
' Henry Binnyman, Dedication of his translation of Appian, 1578.
' Discourses on Livy, III, 41.
' I. ever. Sermons, p. 135.
' Utopia, p. 13.
' Starkey, pp. 2, 7.
"■ Preface to " Knowledge which maketh a wise man," 1534.
" Puynet; Sis- D, VII, see also Sis. E, VH; Sir J<^ Hayward wrote oo thn
subject.
" Steel das, p. 61.
lyGoogk
NOTES
" The Mansion of Magnanimity, Sig. E.
" Cornwillis, Sig. K, 8 v., jo.
" An Apologie of tht English S
■• yidi The Ft*c School of Wai
IV. j^.
■'Works. Vn,Z3i.
>« Battle ofAkaiar, II, 11,32.
» fide "The Admonition 10 the Nobility and People of England," 1588.
* Praise of Solitarincssc, 1577. p. 85, v.
" The Martyrdom of Mr. Campion and Mr, Sherwin. Anon. 1581, Sig. C, 11,
" R. Crompton, The Mansion of Magnanimity. Sig. K. 3 v.
" Correspondence, p, 10.
" "A Letter concerning the rendering of Daventinc, Antwerp, 1587,
'^ R, Crompton, Mansion of Magnanimity, 1599, Sig. G, I, v.
" Last Fight of the Revenge, Edit. Arber, p. 30.
^ Ibid.,B. 91.
" Lcic. Corr., p. 150.
"Journal,/. 417,
" Chamberlain, Lenen, p. i5o.
" Chamberlain, 9 Aug., 1599.
Chapter IV
'Apologie,/. 34,
1 Pollard. Henry VH. Sources, III p. 311.
* Cavendish, p, 177.
Utopia, p. 141.
'Marillac, pp^ 114, 308.
* Wm. Roy, Dialogue between a Father and his Son, p. 69.
'Sermons, lyi,/. 131b.
■John Bale, The Examination of Ann Askew, N. D.
* I'ide Sermon preached at Stamford.
'"Sermons, 1571,/. 96.
" C. Agrippa, Variety of Sciences, /. 79, sq.
"DeMaisse, loumal,/. 28?.
'* Ba^ne, Ando-Roman Relations Oxford, 1913, p. I, tq.
" Leicester's Commonwealth, p. 20.
" A Conference, p. io;.
" Eccles. Polit., Bk. VIII, Chaps. 1, 2, 3. ,.
"Op, »>., Bk. V.Ch.XXX.
"Op. lit., Bt, V, Ch. LXXXI.
"Apdogy, Pt. IV, p. 8s (Cassel's Edit.).
" Life and Times of Hatton, p. S9-
^ Letter to Euphues, p. 194.
" See James Lancaster, Journey to Brazil, 1594.
Chapter V
' Cavendish, p. 273.
'Brewer, II, 451.
More. Dialogue Concerning Heresies.
' Dialoge, p, 19.
* Ibid., p, IJS-
■J, dde, A short description of Antichntt.N. D., circa 1555,/. ]6>43-
lyGOOgIC
' Correspondence, p. ^.
< Letter to Cecil, Works II, 447, sa.
'Quoted in Forneron, Philip It, Vol. II, i».
'"" '■-. PP' 88, J).
;6l._ ._ .,
" I'Estoile Diary, IV, p. 17, '
"Apologie,/. 82 V.
" Pres. St. of Ireland, p. 679.
" Cited by M. Hume, Two English Queens, p. 436.
" Advice to Queen Eliiabeth, Harl. Misc. VU, 56, iq.
" Di^es, p. 91.
"Leie. Comm., pp. 14, JJ.
" Reprinted in Poliaid's Tudor Tracts, p. 184.
" Anat. of Abi
•»Ant.Gi!by a . _ . . ,
" Chamberlain's Letters, 15 Oct., 1600, p. 91.
Chafter VI
' The Ploughers Edit. Arber, p. 25.
' C/. Discourse of the Commonweal, p. 133.
• History, p. 90. See also Leic. Comm., p. ao.
< Manningham's Diary, pp. no, 156. C/. Shaks., Twelfth Night, II, III,
• Hooker, Chap. Ill, etc.
« yide A Conference, Pt. II, 141.
' Nug. Am., II, 9.
• Udall, Diolrephfs Edit. Arbcr, p. la.
« CI. Primaudaye, French Acad. ai6.
'" ti. G. Whetstone, Mirror for Magistrates of Cities, Sig. G. IV b.
" Christian Policy, Ed. is74i p- 14a-
Chapter VII
' Utopia, p. 197.
' Dialog. Concerning Heresies, Works, p. 111.
' Dialogue between John Bon and Master
• Second Sermon to the ICing 1549, p. 54.
t Ascham, Scholemasier, p. 8a.
•Harrison; 1,274-
' A Conference, p. ao8, ij.
' Hooker, Works II,6o5,jg.
'Dom. Cal., 1601, 3, p. 13.
i» Digges, p. 101.
" A Conference, Pt, II, as3-
" Dom. Cal. Addend. 1566-1579, p. 439.
" Admonitions (Ed. Arber), pp. 15, a?.
'• Fidi Martin Marprel., Controv., p. 58.
" Pp. 87, iq.
" Kyd., Edit. Boas Inttod-, p. LXXI, iq.
" Vide Lyly, Eiiphues and his Ephcebus, p. 140.
"Camden, p. 47;.
lyGOOgIC
:k,
Chaiter VIH
Fidt Conjtmi Amaniij, Prolog. 12 and 34.
Dialogue between Experience and a Courtier, I. JlSo.
7. Boiiscuau, Rule of the World, Englished by John Alday, Sig. G, III, ig.
. lopia, p. 131.
■Ibid.
' Cf. Brantome VI, (8.
' fiiii Churchyard's account reprinted in Pollard, Tudor Tracts, p. 319.
' Oder de Selve, pp. 394, sq.
•W. Patten, account reprinted in Pollard's Tudor Tracts, pp. 45, iq.
'" Letter, 1 May, 1578..
" The Spanish Colonic, Transl. by M. M, S,, London, 1583. To the Reader.
" Fynes Moryson, Shale. Europe, pp. 473, jq.
" Ibid., p. 159.
Ch AFTER IX
' Utopia, pp. 37, 4S-
' Star key, pp. 119, 194.
* Pres. State of Ireland, p. 61S.
' Brynklow, p. 27.
'Anat. of Abuses II, II.
' Seven Sermons, Edit,, 1572,/. 13 b.
' Fenton, Christian PoHcy, p. 189,
• f'idi The Martyrdom of H. Campion, M. Shcrwin, is8[, Sig. D, II, v., iq.
'" I'idt Michyn's Diary, pp. 59, .ij., for details of the execution of Sit T.Wyatt
the Younger.
d?,I
116, sq.
- raston Letters, letter 861.
" Fide Bokeof Curtesye, Early Eng. Text Soc., p. 30.
" Bishop Fisher, I, 297.
" Cavendish, p. 207.
>■ Black Letter Ballads and Broadsides, p. 318.
" First Sermon, 1549, P- 91-
" Sermon to the Ploughers, p. aj.
" Works, p. 9i Simon Fish, p. 79.
" Cf. The Govemour, p. 145.
= (Ven, Cal- II, liS?). Cf. Wyatl's epitaph on Sir T. Gra
truth, to further right, the poor's defence," p. 235.
*< Lever, Sermons, pp. 64, 69, 109.
" Brynklow, p. 52.
» Ibid., Complaynt of Roderick Mor?,
" Latimer, First Serm. he' ' "*
" ride Nichols, Lit. Rem.
» Ibid., 1, CLXXXI, iq.
*> F. 106 V.
" Fidt Fenton, Christian Policy, p. 173.
"Anat.ofAbuses, I, 59.
Chapter X
' S. Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 34.
lyGOOgIC
S4 NOTES
Chaptbk XI
' Paston Lrtt. No. 97.
* Ibid., p. 94.
* Koper, p. z; tidr Ital. Rel., p. 14.
* Ital, Rd., p. 37.
' Bcynklow, p. 18.
* Statkey, p. 186.
' Roper, p. 2.
* Vidf C. L. Powdl, English Domeitic Relationi, N. Y. 1917.
First Sermon, p. 35; sec also Fourth Sermon, p. 12S.
■" Camden, p. ss.
"Ascham, Scholemaster, p. jo.
"Satire of the Three Estates, 11. 3931, sq.
<■ yUe Life and Times of Haiton, p. 314.
PART IV
Chapter I
'Utopia, p. izi.
'Letter, 11 Feb., 1574.
Utter, 24 Jjiy, 1S74-
* Dedication to his translation of Guicciaroini.
'W. C. Pref. ta Pdimameia, 1595.
* Letter-Book, p. 86.
' Ibid., p. Z82.
> Defence, Edit. G. Gregory Smith Eliz. Critical Eiiayi, II, 3B4.
* Dialogue hetween Experience and a Courtier I. ;4q.
■" Bk. Ill, Ch. i.
" Discourse, Edit. G. Gregoty Smith, Eliz. Critical Eiiayi, 1, 141.
" Lois le Roy, Variety of Thmgs, p. loSi Eng. trans., 1594.
Chapter II
> Garland of Laurel. Cf. S. Hawes, Pastime of Pleaturc
' Edit., Small, IV, p. 113.
* Cf. Langtiet to Sidney, ig Nov., 1(73.
< Hakluyt Dent Edit, 11, 256.
' 1 Tamb. 1, II, KH.
'Camden, p. 3
' Letter, IS Feb., 1
Chapter III
' Henryson, The Reasoning betwixt Death and Man, p. I?.
' Roper, p. 39.
' K. Q- I, IX, 40.
' Chton. of Henry VIII. p. 70.
' Ibid., p. 86.
•Had. Misc. Ill, 115.
' Brantome, Dames, p. 432.
' Camden; 549; Chamberlain, 24 Feb., 1600.
< G. Whetstone, Censure of a Loyal Subject, Sig. B, I, sq.
'" Sermons, p. 300.
» Lit. Rem. 1, CLVll.
lyGOOgIC
CKAfTBK IV
'Toiophilus, p. IS7.
* Utopia, p. iti.
* Stubbct, Anat. of Ab., p. 178.
Chaptbr V
' Cj. Hentiner, pp. 54, 83.
' Starkey, Dialogue, p. 176.
* Wyatt, Poemi, p. 193. Cf. La Noue, Discourses, Eng. tram., p. 135.
' For a iieatment of this cubject see T. A. Gotch, Early Ren. Arch, in Eng.,
Lond., 1901.
»Archseol.XII,38i,/9.
Colyn Gout, 1, 945, sq.
'Govcrnour, II, 23.
the It:
Sir G. Buck, App„ p. 9S6 to Scow, Chronick Edit., 161 5.
a. R. Lincke, The Fountain of Ancient Fiction, Lond., 1599, Tram, from
Italian, on the artistic representation of the statues of ancient gods.
'•Itinerary, p. iil.
" Wint. Tale. V, II.
■* Preface to hi« translation of Lomazzo, 159S. One of the first account* of
Italian painters in English, may be gleaned from the translation of Louis le
Roy, "Vanity of Things" publiilied in 1594.
"PalladisTamia, pp. aB?, /j.
"Seventh Sermon, p. 186.
" Letter published by La Ferriere Lt /fi"* SitcU rt Ui Faioii, p. 300.
" The Art of Drawing. The first English book on drawing is probaUy "A
very proper treatise. The art of limning," London, Rich. Totell, 1^73, Dound
with Bossewell, " Works of Armory and intended mainly for heraldic art."
" Preface to translation of Lomazzo.
Chaftbr VII
' Pollard, Henry VII, Sources III, 168.
* Dreme, I. 660.
' Admiral de France, /. 73, p. 11.
* Discourse of the Commonwealth, 1581, p. 94.
' Hist., p. 48.
•F.Q., IV, XI, 21.
'TwoGent. ofVer.,I,in.
' Fidt "Journey of Sir H. Gilbert" and "A Welcome Home to Frobithet."
•Hentiner.p.46.
"» Hakluyt, 1, 167.
"/W.,V.1J2.
"Camd. Misc.,V,l7.
" Bacon's Works, II, 424, sq.
>* Discourse in Praise of yueen Eliz-i I, 501, see also Observations on a LibeL
I, SM.
" Hentiner, p. 46.
lyGOOgIC
3S6 NOTES
» HaUuyr, II, ztt.
" Kepiinled in Beazley Voyages, It, 151, iq.
"Cf. Cessie Federigu's travdi in India, London, 158S, Pietro Maffd,
Japan,
'• yide Beste, Preface to Ffobliher's Voyagei, 1578, Sig. A. IIL
» Segai, pp. S8, /j.
" Camden, p. 491.
"Greville, p. 111.
"fvJcHakluyt, VI, 116.
" yide John Brereton, Rdation of the Diicorety oTVirginiai London, 160a,
p. 19.
» Bacon's Works, I, 700, 715. ".
Epist. Ded., id Edit. 1599, I, pp. 19, tj.
> L. Bn'iknt, Uiscourse ot Uvii Lil«. ^
'The Moral Philosophy of the Sioics, Tram, by Thomai Jaaits, Lomdon,
IS98. 1
Sir T. Elyot "Of the Knowledge which Maketh a Wi»e Man." IS3J.
*The Counsellor, p. 13.
* Pief. to hrsi edit.
' Anat. of Abuses, 11, S3. J'?-
' Present State of Ireland, p. 6zS.
" Ibid,, p, 633.
' Cavendish, p. 227.
■* See Chapter on Superstition in Shakespeare's England to which acknowledK-
""^Har""" "
" Harnngton, r
Ch AFTER IX
'Thomas, Pilgrim, p. 6. NJcander Nicraii, Cam. Soc., II, p. 9. Ital. RcL.
pp. 20, 1}.
< Chron. Edit. Whirbley, I, 154.
> Nicander Nicxus, II, p. 9.
* J. Proctor in Tudor Tracts, pp. 109, iq., 337, 254,
'Dialogue, pp. 122, iq.
' Camden, p. 233.
' A conference, Ft. II, 214.
' Fynes Moryson, p. 474.
' d'Ewes, Journals, pp. saS, iq.
i» Busch, p. 239.
" Pres. St. of Ireland, p. 629.
'* Fyncs Morvion, p. 196.
" Solon, his Follie.
'* Lertcr to Sir T. Hoby, 16 July, ISS7, printed at the end «>f the Courtier,
'* fide Toxophilus.
" Hatl was criticised for the "indenture English" and "inkhom tenni"
olhisChronieU. Scholemaster, p. iii.
" Ldand, Laborious Journey, Sig. C, IV.
" Letter Book, pp. 65, sq.
lyGOOgIC
NOTES 357
■• Sig. I, 8, V.
"V.l.p. MI.
" Epistle on the Valueing of the English Tong je. Greg. Smith, Op. Ciu, II,
iSj, iq.
*' Polimanteia, Sig. R, 2 V.
» General Censure, 15B9. See also Introd. to Greene's Menaphon.
" Corn. Agrippa, Vanitv of Science, Eng. trao«l., pp. 14, iq.
•* Letter to Sidney, z8 Jan., lij^.
' Grammatica Anglicana, followed by a Chajcerian Dictionary, Camb.,
1S94 by P- G.
Somerset, pp. 148, sq.
' Camden, p. 197.
' Works, Edit. Grosarc, I, 187.
'Beailey. It, 215.
• Hakluyt, III. 150.
' Nicholas Denisot was tutor to the daughters of the Protector General, and
Jerome Colas teacher to the children of Jane Countess of Southampton.
' Among the Utile known ones may he mentioned the Vocahularium Angiitis n
Gallicis Verbis Scriptum, 1530. Coll. Baroness James de Rothschild, P«iis, and
also Gabriel Meurier, Traite pour apprendre a parler franfais et aaelds. Rouen,
156], intended especially for commetcial use "puisque on parle Traneaia a la
courd' Angleterre.
' Heir follows testament and complaynt of our Soverane lotde's . . . Im-
prented at the command and expenses of Maister Sammuel Jascvy in Parts,
1558. His Dreme was also printed in Paris at the same date, and both appear^
at Rouen in the same year. See Lyndaay's Works, Ed. Laing, III, 169.
1° Verses in English and Scottish were printed by Challcs Utenhove in com-
memoiacion of the death of Henry II.
" Introd. to Greene's Menaphon.
" Holinshed, p. 07.
" ndf Gabriel Harvey Letterbook, p. 98.
" Euphues and his Ephoebus, p. 152. See the writer's "Italian Renaissance
in England," Chapter on The Italian Danger, etc.
CuAPTrR XI
I Bale. Edit. Leiand. IS49. Sig. G. III.
' Ascham, Scholemasler, p. I]6.
• Harrison, I. 78.
' Sermon at Paul's Cross, p. 120.
' Sermons Ed. Arber, p. 41.
•Harrison, I, 77, ^J. „
' Stubbes, Anatomy. II, 20.
' Leic. Comm., p. 99.
• Letterbook. p, gi,
'* La Cena dei Ccneri. Edit., Lagarde, p. 176.
""Academix Cantabrigiensis Lachrymz." Equite* D. Philjppi Sidnzi,
Oxford, 1587.
" Harvey, Letterbook, p. 78.
lyGOOgIC
358 NOTES
Chapter XII
< Pastan Letters, Edit. Gairdner, Intro., I, II7.
' Sit Wm. Fortett, II, 238, sq.
• Chriatian Policy, pp. 191, sq., edit. 1574.
*Anat. of Abuses, 11, 11.
' Chamberlain, Letters, 4 Nov,, 1601.
' Ellis, Orig. Lett., p. 67.
' A. FlemminE, Panoply or Epistles, 1576. Wm. Fulwood, The Enemy of
Idleness, 1593. Wits Tneattc of the Little Wotid, compiled by Robert Abbott,
London, 1599.
lyGOOgIC
INDEX
lyGOOgIC
lyGOOgIC
Adams, William, 31}
Bilney, 104, 23$
ARrippa, Cornelius, i6i
Biron,Mar>ha1,iiB
Alba, Duchess of, 127
Aldines. 318
Bodenham, Captain, 2B6
Allen, Cardinal, 7, 9J, 190-7.
116.
z8o
Bodin, 2(6
Bodley, Sir Thomas, 309
Alva. Duke of, Z15
Anjou. Duke of, 218, 302
Boies. P., 71
Aretine. jis. J33
Boleyn, Anne, 6 sq., Z2 sq., 67, 85 tq..
Ariosto, 261. 306
nssq.. 126, 151,147. 263,313
Aristotle, 79, 160, 174. 3*^
BoBsewell, 160
Arjndel, Lord, 106
Bourbon, Nicholai, 314
Ascham, Roger, 48. 159, 163,
249.
26s,
Bourkc, Ulicb, 303
30s, 312, 310 sq., 338
Askew, Anne, za+
Bowes, Sir. Jerome, 259
Brandon, Gregory, 153
Atchelow, Thomas, 306
Brantomc, 191
Audeley Sir T. 59
Breughel, 231
Ayala. 76
Brian, Alexander, 335
Aylmer. zog
Biissac, Marshal de,zi3
Bruno, Giordano, iBo, Jll
BabiuKton, 235, 264
Brynklow, Richard, 17, 133, 182-4.
Baron, 4, 40 sq.. 47 sq., 54 sq
I.. 69, 90.
„ 234-7. 32s
Brysteit, U 160, i79
95, 115.132, 152,199.213.
223,
250,
261 sq., 277, 282, 192, 29a,
JI2, 322
Buchanan, T., 17, 70, 81, 113, 253
Buckhutsi. Lord, 338
Buckingham, Duke of, $. 4*. S3. S7.
sq- 331.338
Bainham, James, III
Baldwin. H., 160
61. 66, 85, 117, ISO, 163
Bale, John, 17, 161,306
BucUe,8i
Ballard. 264
Bancroft, lichard. 221
Bude. 312
ButTdgh, Lord (see'alwW. Cecil), SS.
Barckley, Sir Richard, 219, 180
Barlow. Jerome, 89
BarnReld. Richard. z6o, 296
72, 92. 96, US, 138, 19s. 2". 2>7.
267,276
Barron, Klizabech, 281
Bate, John. 227
Cabot, J.. 287
Ravne RoKet, 192, 280
Caius, 307
Btalc, Dr., 300
Beaton, Cardinal, 70
Calvin, 198
Camden, William, 60. »7, 235, 189,
Becon, Richard, 303
307,312
Belloy, .7
Bembo, Cardinal, 305.339
Campion, Father, 193, 235
Campion, Janper, 289
Bergtics.de, iij
Carew, 306
Berners. Dame Juhana, 125.
ifio
Berri, Due de, 265
Carleton, 227
C..tello.A.ii.47
Berqiiin, 127
Berlbclet, 88
Caitetnau, 16
ifSh...
Castiglione, 158, 273
Cavendish, Sii Chartet, 110
lyGOOgIC
362 INI
Cavendish, Thonia), 28, 116, jgj
Canton, 144,187,125,316
Cecil, Sir Robert, 301
Cecil William (set also Lord Burleigh),
„.H. 35. S% ' "6. >S*
Chaloner, Str Thomas, 113, 271
Chamberlain, T., 156
Chantonnay, ITO
Charles the Bold, 42
Charles 1, 19
Charies V. 2S7
Charles IX, 7a sq.
Chaucer, 157, 25S, 3C4
Cheke, Ann, 126
Cheke, Sir John. 88, 205, 338
Cheke, Sir Thomas, 306
Chieregatt, 30
Cholmcley, Rkhard, 22?
Churchyard, Thomas, 174, 336
aanrictard, E»rl of, 303
Qevcs, Ann of, 126
Cobham, Elizabeth, 249
CogDet,69, Z13
Coke. T., 306
Cdet, 201,246, 312
Coliiny, 72
Cdonna Vittoria, 119
CcJumbus, z86 sq.
Comines, P. de, II, 47, 150
■. Thon
i, 17
Cope, William, i8l
Copley, Sir Thomas, 15;, 193, 212
Cornwallis, Sir W., 75, 190, i8o, 339
Cotton, G., 48
Cotton, Sir Robert, 309
Cox, Samuel, 59
Cranmec, Archbishop, 183
Cranmer, G., I26
Croke. 48
Crompton, R., 17, 190
Cromwell, Thomas, 5, 39 sq., 42, 49,
52 sq., 58, 88 sq., 117, 120,243
Crowley, 97, 159, 182-4, ^J7> J^S
Dacres, Wd, 65, 117
Daniel, Samuel, 257, 306, 312, 340
Dante, 157, 225
Darcy, Lord, 117, 187
Darell, Wild, 122
d'Aubigne. 48
Davison. 35, 74
Dckkcr.' 90
dela Popeliniere, jB6
dc Maisse, 36, 195, 206
Derbv, Lord, 326, 235
de Selve, 232
De Soto, 219
Devonshire, Marquesi of, 117
Dorset, Marquess of, 163, 170
Doughty, a6o
Douglas, 145
Douglas, Gawain
147. IS7. *S7-9. a*S.
304
Drake, Sir Francis, 62, I07i 238, 257,
260, 291 sq., 297, 334
Drayton, 1 86, 297
Du Sanaa, 48
Du Bellay, 305 sq.
Dudley, ^53, 77, 158
Du Ferner, 72
Dunbar, 85
Duns Scot us, 320-2
Du Vair, 18a
Dyer, Sir Edward, 281, 337
loj, 137, 163, 200, 205, 237 »q-. »64,
301
Egmont,S9
Elioi, John, 314
Elizabeth, Queen, 7, 10, IJ sq., 19, *Si
28-31 sq., 42, 4B.Sa.S7. 60, 67 sq.,
83, 88sq.,93sq.;ii3, ii6Bq., tlJ-S,
132-7 sq., ISO tq., 164-9, 173 »q-.
184 sq., 192 sq., 198 sq., 204 *^>
ZI2-5 iq., 211 sq., 133, 143, ajo-ft
289 sq., 206, 301 sq., J40
Elizabeth of York, 4
Ely, Bishop of, 15
Elyot, Sir Thomas, ;i, 79, tjS sq.,
165,190,237,272,326,336
Empson, 40
Erasmus, 47, 78, 127, l8l, 201, tjl,
246, 359, 318 sq.
Essei, Lord, 40-1, 55, 71, 91 iq,, 96,
120 sq., 19s, 217-222, 263, 292, 3J7
Essex, Lady, iiz
Estienne, Henri, 314, 318
FalstaT, Sir John, 145
Fenton. GeoFrey, nSo, 214, 156, 326
" ' '■ .5. 76
Ferrara, Cardinal of, 214
lyGOOgIC
Fish, Simon, 88, UJ-S. »37. 3*5
Fisher, Cardinal, 87, 96, 117, 159, 178,
187, MJ, 137
Fiti Painck, J03
Fletcher, Giles, 19s
Forest, Father, lof
Foiresi, Sir William, 134, 326
France, Queen of, 247
Francis n3l> j8, 120, 172
Franco, Veronica, 243
Frederick II. 2>7
Frobisher, 195, 257
GaRuin, 307
Gardner, 25
Garthe, Richard, 281
Gascoigne, G., 147, 155, 161, 233, 275,
Gascoi8ne,SrrW„24S
Gaveston, P., IJ
Gawdy, Philip, 191
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, t66, 157, 162,
„.^'.
:, 27*
'Golding, Arthur, 221, 339
Goo^e, B., 161
Gosticius, Grimaldus, St, i8l
Gosson, Stephen, 147
Gower, 230
Granville, Cardinal, 213
Greene, R., iS, 91, 31c, 322, 334
Grenville, Sir Richard, IZ2, 148, 1
z6o
Gresham, 60
Grevillc, Fulkc, 280, 337
Grey, Lady Jane, ii6, 248, 263
Grey, Lord Leonard, 117
Grey, Lord, 170
Grocyn, William, 317
Guicciardini, 69
Guise, Duke of, ss, 77, 119,232
Haddon, Walter, 316
Hakluyt, 281-6, 292 sq.
Hales, J(^n. 184, 190
Hall. 28. ^ao
Har
Har
Harrison, T., 118, 134-6, 306
Harvey, 270
Harvey, Gabriel, 281, 305, 322 sq.
Haselton, Richard, 20;
Hatton, Sir Christopher, 32, 40-2 45,
S9- i«. 184. 109. 336
:on. Sir J., 60, 223
, 22B
EX 363
Hawet, Stephen, 146
Haivkins, 238, 291-3 >q., 334
Hawkwood, SirT, 173
Haydocke, Richard, 275 iq.
Heneage, Sir T., 35
Henry 7V, 211
Henry IV, of France, 35, 198, 217
Henry VI. 48, 62, I87, 199
Henry VII, 4 sq., 9 sq,, 13, 20 iq., 26-
8. 38, 47, 5' sq - 6* sq-. 76. 84-8, 95
sq., 103, 133, 146. 150-5, 168, 23s,
246 sq., 286 sq., 296
Henry VIII-X, S sq.. 10-18, 21-8 sq.,
33. 39. 47 sq., S' '1-' ^S 'I- 7i-8.
86 sq., 108, 163-9, I73i 184-9, w»~
5, 2iO. 233, 147 sq., iS9. i7>-8. 399,
.,303-5. ^'o- 3"4, 32s
Henry, Pnnce, 5
Henryson. 147, 157
Henslowe, 334
Hentiner. 130
Herbert, Sir William, 233
Hertey, Lord, 117
Hertford, Lord, 138, 232
Billiard. Nicholaa, 275
Holbein, 271-4
Holinshed, 93, 12S, 23B
Homer. 261
Hooker, Richard, 207 sq,, 2z6
Hooper, Bishop. 249
Hovel, Nicholas, 376
Howard, Kathcrine, 40, 87, iij, 26]
Honard, Lord, 194
Huguenots, 92
Humphrey, Duke, 18, 317
Humphrey, Lawrence, 159, 184, 315
Huntington. Lord, 236
Huntley, Lord, 144
Husscy, Lord, 1B7
Isabella d'Este, 39
Ivan the Terrible, 259
ackman. Charles, 293
.amesIV, ,8.48,144
. ames VI. 35. 74. "3. 184, 304, 314
, esuits,02. 313
. ewell. Bishop, 209
, onson, Ben, 335
. uana. Mad, 146
, ulius II, Pope, 191
Katherine of Aragon, 5, 14, 16, 67, 86
sq., 199, 246
Kempe. W., 165
lyGOOgIC
364 in:
Kennedy, 85, 147
Kenys, Lawrence, !96
Kett, Francis, 123
Keys, u8
Kildare, Earl of, 117
Kitson, Sir Thomas, 14]
Knon, John, 70, 90. 134 sq., ij^i 244
Knyvett, Sir H., 171
Kyd, T., 118
Lombard e, William, 93
Lambert, John. 300
La Mothe Fenelon, 314
Languet, Hubert, 44, 174, 133 sq., 35;
sq., 307
La Noue, 191, 314, 333
La Primaudaye, 69, 314
Las Casas, 233
Latimer, Hugh, 17, 49, 53, 63, 134,
133 sq., 183, 104. 3JI-6, 33S-7,
247, 364,375,311
La Jet, William. B3
Leicester, Lord, 8, 16, 35, 40, 55-7, 60,
69,110,133,150,156,163,169,171,
195, 206. ii7, 311
Leigb, 160
Leiand, J., 318
Le Roy, Loys, 314
Lever, T., 181-4, *37> 3**
LIuyd, Humphn
Locke, Mrs. 119
Lodge. Thomas, 90, 382
Lopei, Dr., 71
Louis XI, $1, 61
L upset, 184
Luther, 198,203, 311, 326, 198
Lydgate, 136, 146, 306
Lyiy, 46. 1 "?, "29t 162, zio, 250, 315
Lyndsay, Sir David, 70, 8;, 134, 146
sq., 330, 149, 357, 381-6, 306, 3 14
Mac Gilliphraddin, 303
Machiavdli,9, 49, 188
Machyn, Henry, 85
Matkhant, Gervase, 148, 160, 195
Marlowe, Christopher, 8,15, 18,19^
98, 119, 186, 338, 263, 333, J30-7
Ma rot, Clement, 126
Martin Marprdate, 91, 333, 334
Mary. Queen, 6 sq., 17, 31, 57-9, 67,
89 sq., I3S sq., 137, 170, J04, lis,
289, 301, 330
Mary Stuart. 6, 16, 59, 73 »q., 90, 13*
316 sq., 260-3
Mason, Sir John, 120
Matthew, Sir Toby, 280
Maync, Cuthbcrt, 3i;
Medici, Catherine de , 44, 71
Melancthon, 88
Mendoza, 216
Meres, Francis, 275, 306
Michelangelo, 374 sq., 298
Michcle, 24
Monchrestien, 314
Montague, Lord, 1 17, 206
Montaigne, 339
Montesquieu, 159
Montmorency, Floret de, 11 j
Malati
I, z6i
Malory, Sir 1'., 144, 225
Manningham. 351
Mantuanus, 3 28
Marcnift of BtitKiindv, 4, 125
Manllac, 31, S9
Mor
t,337
Thomas, 13, 17, 27, 45-9,
S7 sq., 68, 77 sq., Sj sq., 94 «q.,
120. 13+, 145, 158, 177 sq., 182,199
sq., 303, 311,335, 231-7. *+S "1-.
2S°. 2S5-9. 262-6, 279, 313, J2I
Morton, Cardinal, 245
Moiyson, F^es, 129, 275, }o3
Mount joy
Murray, E
Napier, 279
Napoleon, 4, 33
Nash. Thomas, 91, 306, 315, 333, 334
Naunton, Sir R., fiS, 164
Navagero, Jl
Navarre, Margam of, 129
Norden, 307
Norfolk, Dukeof,4a^6i, 117, 110, 154
Norris, Sir John, 170
Northampton, Marquess of, 249
Northumberland, Duke of, 7, 3&4
Northumberland, Earl of, 15, jjj
O'Brien, Morfough, 303
Occleve. 136
Ocland. Christopher, 33S
Old*. John, 313
ffNeitl's. the, 71
O'Neill, Shan, 1B9
lyGOOgIC
Orange, William of, 68, 74, 18;. 21;
Orosius, 307
aRourlie. 303
Pace, Richard, si, 312
Paget, 34,43. 57, 1:0
Palgrave, 305
Palingcnius, 3:8
PaiLer, Archbishop, 309
Parma, Duke of, 70, 170, 133
Parr, Kaiherine, 147
Parsons, Robert, 8, 117, 313
Paston, 313
Paul IV, Pope, 191
Paulet, 120, 177
Pcacham, Henry, i5o, 276
Peckham, Sir George, 197
Peele, 10, 6g, 191,314, 134
Pembroke, Countess of, 129
Pembroke, Lord, 290
Pcnry, John, 91, 227, 281
Percy, 14s
Perliti, 117,134
Pet, Arthur, 191
Petrarch, 158, 292, 33]
Pheidias, 275
Philip n, 7, 32, 59. 70, 89, 170, 192,
205, 213. 233, 289, 302
Phihps, T., 70
Phillips, Miles, 193
Piccolomini. 165
Picodella Mirandola, 156, 259
Pilgrimage of Grace, 95
Pius, V, Pope, 91 sq.
Plato, iS8
Plutarch, 162
Pole, Cardinal, 81, 177, 189, Z05, 246,
Pole, Edmund de la, 5
Poulei,SirA-.45
Poynct, Bishop, 70, 81, 159
Praxi tiles. 275
Puebla,5i
Pitttenham, G,, 19, 43, 257, 274, 340
Pynson. Richard, 318
Rabelais, 156
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 118, 173. 194,
228, 257. 263, 296 sq,. 337
EX 365
Richard II, 211
Richard III, 4, 62
Rich, Lord, 58, ISO
Rich, Lady, 250
Richmond, Countess of, 125, 236
Richmond, Duke of, 6, 48
Ridley, Bishop, 237
Robinson, Ralph, 189
Robsartc, Amy, tz2
Romano, Giulio, 27;
Ronsard, 48, 306, 31S
Roper, 59
Roulart. 72
Roy, William, 52, 88
Royden, Matthew, 218, 306
Sackville, T., 43
Salisbury, Countess of. 1 17
Sandys, Bishop, 2iS
Savonarola, 104
Scaliger, 310-1, 334
Scott, Reginald, 2S4
Scrope, Stephen, 245
Segar, W., 160, 173
Selden, 309
Shakespeare, 9, 18, 91, III, 129, 310,
256, 266. 27S-9. 281 sq., 290, 298,
}o6, 330-5
Sheffield, Lord, 6$
Shdlcy. 265
Sherwm, Father, 193, 13 S
Shrewsbury, Lord. 2159
Sidney, Sir Henry, 54. 59
Sidney, Sir Philip, 43 -5, 54 iq., 6a, 97,
120, I4S-8, 154-^ 166, 174, iji,
iSO. IS5-9. 39U 297, 3»6-8. 33J «!..
Simitt'^iai
Skelton, 146, 259, Z72
Smeaion, Mark, 42, 67
Smith, John, 173, 297
Smith. Sir Thomia, 264, joS, 311,
338
Somerset, Protector, 126, 169, 112,
249 sq., 264, 310
Southampton, Lordi 251, 364
Speaighr, 307
Speed, 309
Spelman. J07
Edmui . „ . „ . . ,
IS4t 16*1 1701 *I7. 134. ISO-
Edmund, 19, 41-5 *q..
8, 260 sq., 278, 183 sq., 290, 303-s,
^ 322. 333-S. 340
Spinelli, 51
Stanhope, J., 121
lyGOOgIC
366 INI
Siaoley, Sir William. 96, 171, 191
Staper, Richard, 295
Staikey, Thomai, 81, 136, 145, 177 iq.,
St. Banholon
1, 7a tq., 113, 218,
Story, T., 71, I
Stow, J-.JS, 2;
Streeto, W., 2r,
Stow, J; is, 23S. 307 «l-
Stn*i«.-*'
Sti
Van, Linichoten, 19a
Vaiu, Sir N., 4a
Vega, Girdluo,deIa,5l
Vere,303
Vetaizano, 167
Vernon, Miu, sjl
Vinci, LeonanJa da, 284
125
_ .Lady Arabella, iiS
Srubbei, John, 31, 92, 193
Stubbcs, P., 17, 130, 138, 119, 134,
219, 281, 316
Stjkdey, Sir T., 119, 191
SufFoik, Duke of, 15, 38, 41, 57, 61,
117, 161, 246
Suffolk, Duchess of, 148
Surrey, Lord, 38, 43, 53, 117. i]7. 17°.
22Cs 246, 266, 326
Sussex, Lord, 106, 251
Swart, Martin, 168
Switier, Christopher, 27s
Taiso, J06, 339
Theocntus,l£9,333
Thomas, William, 78, 322, 331
Thomond, Earl of, 103
Throckmorton, Cutnbert, 22
"Diynne, Francis, 307
Thynne, William, 304, 307
1. 183, 306
Wallop, 87
Walih, Matter, 15
Waldngham, Sir P.,
34iq..7a«l-.i8o»
Warbecl^ Perkin, C. CS, 65, IIC
Warwick, e
Warwick, Lord, 40, 19c
Webbe, William, 258
Wentw«tth, Petet, 88
White, Gilbert, 265
William), R^*t> 173
Wilton, Sir Thomat, 321, 338
WJfe, Reginald, 318
Wordiworth, 265
Wocton, Sir Henty, 248, 339
Wyait, Sit Thomai,43Ki.,jt, £2,67,
188,220,246,264,300
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WORKS BY PROF. C. D. HAZEN
Modern European History
By C. D. HAZEN,
Prtftstar a/ History, Celumhia Ukivtrsify.
Demy Stu>. "js. 6d. net.
This n«w work by Frof. Uazen covers the period from the doie of the i8th centiuy
lo the end of the Grenl War. Its central theme a the itni^le for Uberty whidi 'hu
been the waip and woof of Modern Eiuopean History ' lince the dose of the l8tb
cenluiy, and the anthor traces the history of this stia^le through all its vidnitndei.
The Journal of EducatUm declares that ' it is undoubtedlj a fint-iBte text-book,' aitd
praises the ' fine array of historical portraits and other adornments ' which it cooOunt.
Fifty Years of Europe
1870— 1919
Demy 8vo. With maps. i^s. net.
n interesting survey of the rise and fall of the Geiman Empre,
ents and changes wf"""" -*---- ■>---- '" -■ !.->.■- ■-!
1914. The author
sketch uf the Great War which brought the ei
Europe since 1815
Demy Svo. Witk eoioured maps, iss.net.
'A thoroughly practical text -book, well arranged, well indexed, and equipped with
usefol maps. The style is simple and lucid i and ihe author has be«i caieful to bold the
balance evenly between contending causes and ideas, and gives very useful snmmaiiet of
current political questions.' — Afatichtiftr Guatdian.
BY PROF. W. C. ABBOTT
The Expansion of Europe
1415-1789
A HISTORY OF THE FOUNDATIONS OK THE MODERN WORLD
By W. C. ABBOTT, B.LITT., M.A.
Profciior ef Hislorj in ¥a!t Univtnity.
Demy Spo. i vols. Witk 45 maps (8 coloured) and 55 illustrations. 30*. net.
' Mr. Ablxitt's book is n very notalile performance, ... It is indeed a fine ■chievc'
meni, . We will go to Mr. Abbott's handsome volumes again (or their story of the
dL'sire<:, fear^, and achievements, the harmonious and disharmuniout eneigiei, of the
pcoplri of Europe, a story to the making of which learning, labour, and imagimttion have
eonlributed.' —Nation.
LONDON : G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.
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STANDARD WORKS on EUROPEAN HISTORY
History of Serbia. SyH. W. v. Tkmperlky, FeUowof
Feterbouse, and Reader in Modem History in the Univetsity of
Cambridge. Second edition. Demy 8vo. loj. 6rf. net.
' A guide which ia at once iadicial >nd sympathetic, and ii nurked throncboot
by laanA louning, a dignifiea style, and real bistoiical iiuig|ht. It ii a valnaUe
addition to the number of informing woiki on Eniopean bulory which B"t''A
scholarship hw lately produced.' — Timts.
The Revolutionary Period in Europe
(1763-181 5). By Henrv Eldridge Bourne, Professor of Hiatoiy in
Western Reserve University. Witb 8 maps. iw. 6d. net.
' This is the best handbook we have aeen upon the revolodonaiy period.'
ftttrnal e^ EAltttiu»,
* The book is eicelleatly ami^[ed. ... A solid and welcome piece of woA-
manship. ' — Alhtttavm,
A History of Modern Europe from the Fau
of Constantinople. By Thomas Henry Dyer, LL.D. Third edition,
revised and continued to the end of the Nineteenth Century, by
Arthur Hassall, M.A., Student of Christ Church, Oxford. In ax
volumes. Crown 8 vo. With maps. 6j. net each. [Sokn's Lthrmy.
' The original woik filled a diitincl place, and that place it hai now been fitted
lo maintain moie worthily than ever.' — /»timal »/ EJiKatitn.
' For the general reader, and even for the historical student who it content with
anything short ol OTunnal research. Dyer's book i« indiipentable, at any rate far the
iirsl three centuries ajtei the (all of Constantinople. Ttua work (revision) covld not
have been committed lo more competent hands than Hr. Arthni Hanall.'
EvtHimf SUmdt^
Mediaeval Europe, 395-1270. ByCHA«iM
B^MONT and G. Monod. Translated under the Editorship of Georgi
Burton Adams, Professor in Yale University. Crown 8vo. \os. td. net
The History of the Middle Ages, b,
Victor Duruy, of the French Academy. With notes xnd levitioiu
by George Burton Adams, Professor of History in Yale Univenity*
Crown 8vo. its. 6d. net
while it gives a very clear conception of the eeneral novementt of the penpd, it
provides a sufficient number of the facts and details of tbe hiatory to ranuih a
basis for snch general views.
LONDON : G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.
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WORKS BY
HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL GASQUET
' Of sucli historians as Gaaquel the came of historic trath can never have too many.'
PaU Mall Catetu.
' Only a few men can obtain a secure lepotalion for soliditr and fidelity, and among
these happy ernes Gasquet must be numbered. . . . His historical WTitingllu'e always!
pleasure and a prolit to read.' — Catholu Tinits.
Henry III. and the Church, a study of his
Ecclesiastical Policy and of the Relations between England and
Rome. Second edition. Demy 8vo. i3J.net.
The Eve of the Reformation, studies in the
Religious Life and Thought of the English People in the period pre-
ceding the Rejection of the Romish Jurisdiction by Henry VIII. Sixih
edition. 8vo. is. 6d. net.
Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries
New edition. With maps and portrait of the Author. Demy 8vo.
ids. net.
The Old English Bible, and other Essays.
Third edition, revised. Crown 8vo. 6j. net
England under the Old Religion, and
otlier Essays. Crown 8vo. 6j. net.
ENGLAND IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
The Fasten Letters
As transcribed by Sir John Fenn. A Selection arranged and edited by
Alice D. Greenwood, F.R.Hist^. Post 8vo. \$s. net.
' Here we have a grouping of epistles designed to eihil»il perfectly the home life,
travels, and occupalions of a good middle-class English family in the ijth centary days.
Reading them i; like looking at a volume of drawings by Holbein, so vividly do they
present us with the picture of the typical men of the limes. . . , These letters mirror the
15th cenluiy mote admirably than many a deliberately planned history. . . . The bu<A
is like a mirror of Shalol, wheiein we can see knight and batghci, squire and plain man,
rubber and messenger, going up anil down the pleasant land of Englaad 00 the business
of the common day, fixe hundred years ago.' — Liveifeel Couritr.
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